Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.
Where Love Goes by Joyce Maynard
Fiction
1993 Vintage
Finished on November 20, 1996
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)
Publisher's Blurb:
From the author of To Die For comes this poignant, stirring, and occasionally hilarious story of a woman's attempt to remake her life after a searing divorce. Maynard's novel captures love as one approaches middle age in contemporary America.
My Original Notes (1996):
Very good, but depressing! I wonder how much of the details are autobiographical. I read Joyce Maynard's newsletter and a lot of what she's written (about her family and her divorce) sounds familiar in the plot of this book. I couldn't put the book down!
"A splendid, heartfelt novel... real enough to live in." ~ Pat Conroy
I could relate to a lot of what Maynard described, with regard to divorce and blended families.
My Current Thoughts:
I've written about Joyce Maynard here and here and loved both of those novels even more than this one. I still have an ARC of After Her on my TBR shelf and hope to get to it in the coming year or so. I no longer have a copy of Where Love Goes, but in spite of enjoying it so well in 1996, I doubt I'd read it again. Reading about divorce and step-parenting isn't high on my list at this point in my life. The book probably validated a lot of my own feelings 20 years ago, but I don't feel the need to seek out affirmation of those feelings or attitudes any longer.
It won't surprise you one little bit that I am so not a JM fan. Don't like her topics, and not impressed with her tell-all about Salinger, and not impressed with her, period. haha. We could start one of those blogs like those women who were like 3000 miles apart and posted each day, only ours would be about books, and celebrating the ones we both like!
ReplyDeleteNope. Doesn't surprise me one bit, Nan. :) Love the idea for one of those distance blogs. Maybe when I'm retired. :)
DeleteYou don't recall what it was called, do you? They put it together as a book, and I don't know if it even exists anymore but it was so cool the way sometimes their pictures would 'rhyme' and neither one knew what the other was posting. I somehow have the idea it was Portand Maine and Oregon??
DeleteIt's called 3191 Miles Apart (here's the link). I haven't looked at it for years, but they're still posting.
DeleteCan understand how a book speaks to us at one point in our lives and not another. Happens often to me. :-)
ReplyDeleteIt happens often to me, too! Thanks for stopping by and commenting, Debbie!
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