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Laura Best (2)

Forfatter af Bitter, Sweet

For andre forfattere med navnet Laura Best, se skeln forfatterne siden.

4 Works 38 Members 6 Reviews

Serier

Værker af Laura Best

Bitter, Sweet (2009) 15 eksemplarer
Flying With a Broken Wing (2014) 8 eksemplarer
Cammie Takes Flight (2017) 8 eksemplarer
Good Mothers Don't (2020) 7 eksemplarer

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In Laura Best’s first novel for adults, it is 1960. Young mother Elizabeth MacKay lives with her husband Cliff, daughter Jewel and son Jacob in the farming community of The Forties, in Nova Scotia. Everything should be fine. Her children are happy and healthy. The farm is doing well. But all is not well with Elizabeth, who is losing her grip on reality. Suffering from paranoid delusions, she is afraid of harming her children. She’s been prescribed medication to regulate her moods, but she doesn’t know who to trust and refuses to take the pills. One day, to keep her children safe from the threat she poses, she leaves the house and spends the night in the forest. We next encounter Elizabeth in 1975. She is living in a group home where she is in the latter stages of recovery from the mental illness that brought her life to an abrupt halt. Like the other residents in the home, she is making a careful re-entry into society. But Elizabeth’s trauma is deep and profound. Years of medication and electro-shock therapy have not just rendered her docile and compliant, but also wiped her mind clean (one of the other residents of the home calls her a “cardboard dummy”). She has no memory of who she was before all this happened, no recollection of family or friends. But the memories are starting to return, and when she encounters a clerk at the local Frenchy’s wearing a nametag that says JEWEL, some of the fragments start to fall into place. The remainder of the novel chronicles Elizabeth’s slow and tortuous journey back into her past as she tries, despite misgivings, to recover the lost memories, and searches for the person she used to be and anyone who might remember her. In Good Mothers Don’t, Laura Best has written a poignant, quietly gripping novel that tells of the devastating effects that mental illness has on people’s lives. The onset of Elizabeth’s illness—her terror and feelings of helplessness—is rendered with heart-rending empathy; her volatile state of mind and irrational fears are vividly depicted. Especially persuasive and tragic is Best’s portrayal of the shame and confusion with which Elizabeth’s family and the people of The Forties respond to her illness: their willingness to erase her from the collective consciousness once she is removed from their midst. In the end it is Elizabeth’s perseverance and determined spirit that makes it possible for her to reconnect with a world that left her for dead and begin the process of reassembling her shattered life.… (mere)
 
Markeret
icolford | May 15, 2020 |
Flying with a Broken Wing is a young adult novel set in a fictitious community in Nova Scotia.

Nearly twelve-year-old Cammie is the main character in Flying with a Broken Wing, and we get to see most of the adventure from her perspective. She is a young girl with a big dream – the dream of somehow starting a better life for herself.

All Cammie knows about her past is that her father was lost in the Second World War, her mother left her with an aunt who is the local bootlegger, and now her life feels full of shame and disappointment. Her aunt is harsh and not the most popular person around – among people who don’t buy moonshine, that is. Add to that the fact that Cammie’s eyes don’t work well. Being visually impaired has been a terrible burden, especially when everyone treats her differently because of it, and her aunt doesn’t even want to let her go to school. To Cammie that is very unfair, especially when she wants to go! When Cammie learns about a school for the blind in Halifax, that becomes her new goal and her hope for the better life she wants.

Cammie gains a friend along the way, one her aunt does NOT approve of because of her own personal reasons, which suits Cammie all the better. That’s when the excitement really begins … and the hilarity, and the trouble – big trouble. What kind of trouble? you may ask. Well, I’m sorry but you have to read about that yourself. Let me just say, it was a daring and dangerous plan, and the author certainly held my interest! Now I’m hoping for a sequel.

This is a delightful young adult novel for anyone to read. Laura Best created very believable characters in a post-war community setting. She is expert at writing real people who talk and act as one might expect, including some who aren’t always nice. If you have never had the privilege of reading any of the author’s work, read this one.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
Polilla-Lynn | May 20, 2014 |
Laura based her story in Dalhousie Road, Nova Scotia, Canada, in the 1940′s after World War ll, and captured a glimpse of the history of rural Nova Scotia sixty years ago. The family she created comes alive with interesting authentic dialogue and cleverly written point of view that holds the reader’s attention. I was drawn in right from the first words in chapter one.

The Burbidge family of six moved around a lot, but then finally settled into an old house in a secluded area. They struggled to get by, especially when the father went away to work and soon stopped sending money home. With him not in the picture anymore, and their mother becoming very ill, the four children have to learn how to survive and stay together should they end up alone. Their mother teaches well her older daughter, Pru.

Laura wrote in a way that lures the reader emotionally into the lives of this family whose story is told mainly by Pru. I found I was dismayed by the actions of one child, annoyed by the attitude of a nosy overbearing neighbour and disappointed by a trusted adult who turned out to be untrustworthy in a time of need. I felt the desperation of the children and sided with them in their trying situations.

Without giving away the story – in case you haven’t yet read Bitter, Sweet – I will hint that the challenges of life touched by those who had gone before added an interesting dimension to the story. There are unexpected twists and the reader is left with unanswered questions to answer however one wishes, and not in a disappointing way.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
Polilla-Lynn | 3 andre anmeldelser | Feb 10, 2014 |
Give this book a read if you enjoy character-driven stories centered around children forced to grow up too quickly, who must fight to protect themselves and their families, with a dash of magic and a hint of the supernatural.

It's a tearjerker, and if you don't get riled up on a character's behalf or if it doesn't tug at your heartstrings, I don't know if too much could. What I enjoyed most was the bond between Pru and Mama. This is classified as Young Adult Literature but I think it's suitable and relevant for all ages.… (mere)
 
Markeret
flying_monkeys | 3 andre anmeldelser | Apr 9, 2013 |

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Statistikker

Værker
4
Medlemmer
38
Popularitet
#383,442
Vurdering
3.8
Anmeldelser
6
ISBN
28
Sprog
1