Monday, November 22, 2010

On My Nightstand - Blame

Blame by Michelle  Huneven

I chose this book as my pick for book club, I read some good reviews about it and liked the concept.

Overall - this book was okay, I feel like it could have been so much more, the characters were well developed, and the story well done - but still there was something missing; maybe it was that the suspense, the shocker of the book was revealed on the back cover?

On the back cover:
Patsy MacLemoore, a history professor in her late twenties with a brand-new PH.D. from Berkeley and a wild streak, wakes up in jail - yet again - after another epic alcoholic blackout.  "Okay, what'd I do?" she asks her lawyer and jailers.  "I really don't remember."  She add jokingly:  "Did I kill someone?"

In fact, two Jehovah's Witnesses, a mother and daughter, are dead, run over in Patsy's driveway.  Patsy, who was driving with a revoked license, will spend the rests of her life -- in prison, getting sober, finding a new community (and a husband) in AA - trying to atone for this unpardonable act.

Then, decades later, another unimaginable piece of information turns up.

For the reader, it is an electrifying moment, a joyous, fall-off-the-couch-with-surprise moment.  For Patsy, it is more complicated.  Blame must be reapportioned, her life reassessed.
What does it mean that her life has been based on wrong assumptions?  What can she cleave to?  What must be relinquished?

My rating: 3 out of 5

No comments: