Review of
The
Awakening: A Woman’s Search For Truth, by Lisa Anne, ISBN
9781440197093
Four out of five stars
In the broad
view, this is a book about a woman in a failing marriage with three children
that keep her running fast and furious. Meg Richards is married to Craig and he
is struggling in his job, losing a major account to their neighbor. Craig is a
person with problems from his childhood that Meg only has a slight
understanding of and he is withdrawing from both the marriage and their children.
All other members of the household tense up when he comes home, there are no
significant conversations between Craig and Meg or the children.
Meg has two siblings that were always the ones favored
by the parents and that has extended into adulthood. Conversations with her
mother never seem to have any content in the form of support or assistance to
Meg. A therapist, Meg is very good at her job, but that talent is divorced from
her personal life. She does have one close friend, a woman that was abused as a
child and is still working through the long-term consequences.
The story moves
along well, despite the relatively innocuous events. There are no dynamic and
extremely tense moments, just situations that all people face at some point in
their lives. For example, nearly everyone with children has attended a
gathering where it was necessary to bring food and purchased their contributions
due to a lack of time.
In the last
section of the story, Meg learns a great deal about Craig’s childhood problems
and the truth about the lives of her sisters. In many ways the book reminded me
of the classic “Catcher in the Rye” where the main character thinks everyone is
phony. It turns out that everyone Meg deals closely with is wearing a Potemkin
facade that covers what they really are. Once Meg understands this, she
realizes that her life is not the relatively hopeless entity that she thought
it was. For nothing alters your perspective more than learning that the people
you envy in fact envy you.
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