A Brief Chapter in My Impossible Life
Just as Simone is beginning her junior year, her parents drop a bombshell on her: her birth mother has called, and wants to meet her. While Simone has known her entire life that she was adopted but has no interest in learning anything about her family history. She has too many other things on her plate, finding extracurricular activities at school, learning her SAT words, and trying to run into Zach, the cute guy who works the coffee counter at the local organic market.
After a conversation with a friend (who is also adopted), she decides to make the call to her birth mother, Rifka, who as it turns out, is (or was) a Hassidic Jew. Simone slowly begins to learn her family's story, and, more importantly, to realize that it was something she needed to know.
I absolutely adored this book. Though I have two small complaints:
1. The Title -- I never really believed that Simone thought her life was impossible. She was quite possibly the most well-adjusted teenager I have ever read about. Every time she complained about something that was happening in her life, she would also mention the things going on in her friends' lives.
2. I listened to the audio version, which was really good, but the narrator was the same one who did Speak (Laurie Halse Anderson) and I kept getting confused. Moral of the story -- listen to this on audio, but read Speak (because it's just one of those books that everyone should read!)
3 comments:
It's always a pet peeve of mine when the title doesn't really "go" with the book exactly. Good book though, for sure.
I had the same narrator problem! Except it was with the audio version of The Boyfriend Lost!
I agree a bit about the title. It does its magic though -- It catches the eye of the customer/reader.
Post a Comment