park row – Review: 4 stars
note : This review contains some plot spoilers
** spoiler alert ** This story follows Martha Storm who works in her local library and spends all of her time helping out the people around her: running their errands, hemming, mending, and washing their clothes, storing their things that they don’t have the space for, etc. Until one day when a strange man leaves her a special book, and her search to find more about it leads her on a journey into her past that could change her future.
Every once in a while I wanted to slap some sense into Martha, and tell her that she needed to stop and take some time for herself. But then I realized that I think we all, myself included, have a bit of Martha in us. Which, in hindsight, may have lead to the urge to slap to begin with. She is a very sweet character and it is definitely written in a way that I wanted to root for her from the very first page, which I appreciated. Also needing to be noted is her Nana, Zelda. Goodness, what a fun character! Not often quite as easy to relate to as Martha is, but she is kind of the embodiment of what might happen if that fun aunt (that everyone secretly wants to be) decided to age but never grow up.
I will say that some of the big reveals that happen rather late in the book were interesting and well written, but not necessarily all that surprising. Although that didn’t bug me in this case – I picked up this book for a character driven family story, not a suspense of any kind, and in that I was not at all disappointed.
I loved how this book addressed the perception of a “perfect family,” versus what about a family makes it real and makes it perfect to us. I love that this story doesn’t just end with her feeling resentful of her past or her familial situation, but that it also doesn’t show her trying to pretend that it didn’t happen. She learns that Thomas wasn’t her biological father, and she thinks that maybe that was why she often felt like he was hard on her as a kid. But she doesn’t become resentful of the fact that she took care of him in his old age, or decide that they weren’t family after all. She sees him as the man who let his love for her mother convince him to raise and love a child as if she were his own, and not even tell his own family. This journey, I think, was the one at the heart of the novel that I appreciated the most. It’s easy to feel deceived and like it wasn’t fair, but to let Martha come around and find mutual love and respect for her father through all of their strange past was a wonderful end to that part of her life.
I knew pretty early on that I was going to enjoy this book – I love to read about book lovers, and when they take place in bookish settings are just an added bonus. What I didn’t know going in was quite how heartwarming of a family story I was in store for. Definitely driven by the character work, and a whole lot of heart, I would recommend this book.
Tackling TBR 