Monday, May 16, 2016

What was Mine by Helen Klein Ross Review

  What was Mine by Helen Klein Ross

“Kidnap. Parse the word. It ought to mean laying down with baby goats. Words can be so misleading.”

That is the opening to the sensational What was Mine by Helen Klein Ross. I devoured this book and despite finishing it several days ago am still thinking about it. It was an enjoyable emotional roller-coaster. I have done something before in a weird unaware haze. Not fully realizing what I had done until afterwards. Having that kind of experience helped me to believe and understand Lucy’s experience in taking Baby Mia from the unattended cart. 

The story is told in short chapter alternating viewpoints, primarily from the kidnapper, the birth mother, and the baby’s once older with other characters views as well. Almost everyone gets at least one viewpoint chapter. This jumping around can sometimes be disorienting if mishandled, it was handled masterfully in What was Mine. The story was richer for it. 

My only disappointment is in the ending, not what happened but that it ended too soon. It ended just as something I really wanted to read was happening. I get why the author left it there but ugghhh I really wanted to read it how the author saw it going.

All in all, an engrossing read and my favorite book I have read so far this year. 

Amazon Description:

 Simply told but deeply affecting, in the bestselling tradition of Alice McDermott and Tom Perrotta, this urgent novel unravels the heartrending yet unsentimental tale of a woman who kidnaps a baby in a superstore—and gets away with it for twenty-one years.

Lucy Wakefield is a seemingly ordinary woman who does something extraordinary in a desperate moment: she takes a baby girl from a shopping cart and raises her as her own. It’s a secret she manages to keep for over two decades—from her daughter, the babysitter who helped raise her, family, coworkers, and friends.

When Lucy’s now-grown daughter Mia discovers the devastating truth of her origins, she is overwhelmed by confusion and anger and determines not to speak again to the mother who raised her. She reaches out to her birth mother for a tearful reunion, and Lucy is forced to flee to China to avoid prosecution. What follows is a ripple effect that alters the lives of many and challenges our understanding of the very meaning of motherhood.

Author Helen Klein Ross, whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, weaves a powerful story of upheaval and resilience told from the alternating perspectives of Lucy, Mia, Mia’s birth mother, and others intimately involved in the kidnapping. What Was Mine is a compelling tale of motherhood and loss, of grief and hope, and the life-shattering effects of a single, irrevocable moment.

This book is available for checkout through the Lake County Library System.



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