May 28-June 1
This week MotherTalk bloggers are writing about Once Upon A Day, a novel by Lisa Tucker. The book follows 23-year-old Dorothea, who has left her overprotective father’s secluded 35-acre New Mexico estate, where she and her brother, Jimmy, had been sheltered from current news and all modern-day innovations. Searching for her runaway brother in St. Louis, Dorothea meets a recently widowed doctor-turned-cabbie who introduces her to the vibrant outside world he’s been trying to escape. A parallel tale set in the 1970s follows the budding romance between a successful film director and the waif who becomes his muse, his wife and the object of his obsessive control.

May 28: Anjali at Life in the Hundred-Acre Wood writes: “Tucker crafts her characters in such a way that we are simultaneously in love with them, but infuriated by them. We are acutely sympathetic to their pain, yet frustrated with their righteousness and naivete. We long to comfort them, yet wonder whether they warrant forgiveness. And because each character endures such a considerable evolution spurred by tragedy, it is difficult, if not impossible, to put down the book.” The book inspires Delia at Left-Handed Trees to reflect on her own maternal fears, and she calls the book “a highly readable, ‘page-turner’ — even as it mines some darker subterranean territory of psychological responses to trauma, fear, and the unforeseeable fortunes affecting us all.”

May 29: Barbara at Just Another Ink-Stained Wretch found it hard to suspend her disbelief about some things in the book, but says “and yet, I didn’t put it down, not once. I stayed up until the wee small hours to find out what happened.” And The Debroff Debrief says “I appreciated the way [Tucker] maneuvered through murky, complicated personalities and situations that are of course never clear-cut in real life. I highly recommend the book – it’s readable, compelling, engaging, and thoughtful, and you’ll be glad you read it all the way through.”

May 30: Baggage and Bug describes Once Upon a Day as a modern take on a fairy-tale. “The whole story has the feel of a world where you recognize the places and the events, but nothing feels exactly like it does when you put the book down and go back to your real life,” she writes. “Once upon a Day is a love story and a mystery and has enough of an interesting twist that I couldn’t put it down. And in my life right now, that is saying a lot.” And Margalit at What Was I THINKING says “Lisa Tucker has written a story of a family history and interpersonal drama which will consume the reader from the first chapter. This is the kind of book that you honestly can’t put down, and will read from cover to cover consumed by what may or may not happen next … Tucker’s novel is a powerful dissertation of the exploration of family dysfunction … I highly recommend this book. It was a real page turner.”

May 31: Roni at Goddess Musings says “Once Upon a Day is a mystery wrapped around a tragic love story. Why is the father so fearful and controlling? Can the kids adjust to life in modern day America? Will they ever find their mother’s family despite their father’s stonewalling? I had to know why things happened and if the father was worthy of forgiveness. The butler didn’t do it, but woo boy, did the father ever! … I highly recommend this book as a great summer book. It’s not entirely light and fluffy, but it’s also not a difficult read. I also think it would be a great book club selection with all the ethical and moral questions that are raised.” And Kateri at Wet Feet has this to say: “I sat in my chair and read until my back ached and my eyes begged to close, because I just had to see how these threads were woven together at the end. It’s been a long time since a book kept me up all night but this one was well worth the sleeplessness.”

June 1: Elizabeth at MomReviews is only just now catching her breath. She says “During one climactic scene in the book, when events are unfolding in a way that I as the reader knew there was no way to stop them, I almost couldn’t breathe … As a Mother, I found it disturbing, compelling, touching. The story is suspenseful yet richly romantic, with an ending that manages to satisfy the reader without wrapping it up too neatly. In other words, a true page-turner. Once Upon A Day is a book I won’t soon forget.” And Rachel at Our Gaggle of Girls says “Once Upon a Day is one of those books you can’t put down - you want to shut yourself into a closet and finish the book, but you don’t want it to end! The characters are so well developed that you really do wonder “what next?” at the end of the book - it’s so clear that the lives of the characters continue.” 

This entry was posted on Monday, May 28th, 2007 at 8:13 am and is filed under Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.