Well I enjoyed this just as much as What Alice Forgot! Isn’t it great when you find a new author you like? And even better when they are not really new so that you have many of their books to choose from. Let’s see…are there more than just these two titles?? Yup, looks like there’s another one.
Many of the qualities I like in What Alice Forgot showed up in this book two-varying points of view, the exotic Australian setting (likely not exotic to the Australian author, but I enjoyed it-a hot Christmas day!), very funny bits, but also very moving and emotional and sometimes sad bits.
The story focuses on three women-Cat, Lyn, and Gemma-who are triplets. They are all quite the characters, intensely involved in each other’s lives, and they have a wonderful mad family. Each of them has a role in the family and a personality that they each feel obliged to stick with-Lyn is the super successful has-it-all working mother, Gemma is the free spirit without a career or permanent lodging, and Cat is married to Dan, desperate to have a baby. Everything starts to fall to pieces for everyone when Dan cheats on Cat.
My favorite thing about this book was that scattered throughout were occasional one page pieces that were stories people we don’t know were telling to other people. And the stories were all anecdotes about the triplets (who are strangers to these narrators.) What I loved about these stories was that even if you are not part of a noisy triplet group with gorgeous tall legs (which of course would make an impression on someone), you never know what role you are playing in someone else’s life. For all you know someone out there tells a story about the time they saw someone doing something and you are that someone! So, although the story is told basically from the triplets’ points of view, you also get these objective narrators giving a peek into how other people see them (and they cover all ages of them-from toddlers to adults.)
A really wonderful read.
The Last Book I Read 