Girls in Trouble: A Novel
by Caroline Leavitt
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Book Summary Information
Author: Caroline LeavittEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2005-04-01
ISBN: 0312339739
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Book Reviews of Girls in Trouble: A Novel
Book Review: I sobbed for the last hour.... A GREAT book, A MUST read
Summary: 5 Stars
I found "Girls in Trouble" a compulsive read and a tear jerker AND highly literate. As an adoptive mom maybe I was overly emotional, but this story, as many have said, IS a page turner. I read the hard cover and couldn't believe I hadn't read it earlier, now in paperback.
Here's what is great about this book: The well-rounded unique characters, the atypical adoption story, the way everyone here is capable of transformation, the way the adoptive parents fumble-- understandably; the two "girls" at the center: Sara and Anne. It's probably true that few mother-daughter reunions are this utterly amazing, for both, but mainly Caroline Leavitt makes every twist of the plot: more than real. We have tragedy and comedy, great writing, and a happy ending (sorry, spoiler).
So why did I lose two nights of sleep over this book. Because Leavitt knows how to move a plot forward as if seamlessly. Because the language, though easy to read, is gorgeous. Here's a tiny example is not only true but captures the real sub-text:
p 231: "People had it so wrong about missing. "It's like a pie," her mother once told her. "The pie is your whole life, the pieces are pain, and after a while, each piece gets smaller and smaller, and then you have your whole life back." Her mother was so wrong. Maybe the pieces grew smaller, but your hunger for them didn't, it was always there, real and immediate, like breathing, necessary and something you couldn't control or stop, even if you wanted to. And like a pie, your past was something you were always hungry for."
What is so wonderful about this novel is that most of the many characters spout homilies about how good life will be. But for virtually everyone here, that is a lie, and the lie is what Leavitt shows. Pain doesn't stop until there is truth and redemption. That the characters, who leap off the page more real than real people you know-- all have to learn the above lession, and each in his or her way do, which is why I love this novel. Everyone, despite earlier rigigites sp?, eventually, and beautifully, come around.
Lies hurt. Pain is only cured by truth and magnanimity. These emotions are scarse in life, but abundant in "Girls In Trouble." Which is why reading this, on Yom Kippur no less, made me feel a renewed devotion not to lie and to see the world from others' point of view. There is one graph ONE that I thought was a tad off. ONE GRAPH in a novel 356 pages long. How many novels are this good? Very few. Leavitt in this book, one of many she has written, is up there with Sue Miller and Carole Shields, a natural story teller. Read it and see if you find that one graph, because even that is so well written I bet you won't find it. Everything here leaps off the page as absolutely REAL.
5 stars, highly recommend!! Thank you, Caroline Leavitt. A great book is a real gift and now that I've finished just twenty minutes ago, what I feel is grief. I, like another reviewer, would love Leavitt to have a sequel, long into the future or not so long. This books just begs for a second novel. It's THAT good. It's actually GREAT. I read a whole heap of books every week, but rarely am I as sad for a novel to end.
Summary of Girls in Trouble: A Novel
In this heart-wrenching story of an open adoption gone wrong, Caroline Leavitt reveals the astonishing power of family bonds and maternal love. Sara, sixteen, is in denial about her pregnancy and too far along for an abortion. Her once-devoted boyfriend has disappeared so Sara decides her only option is an open adoption with George and Eva, a couple desperate for a child. After the birth it's clear Sara has a bond with the child that Eva can't duplicate and Eva and George make a drastic decision, with devastating consequences for them all.
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