A Simple Thing: A Novel

When I first picked up this book I wondered if it was going to be one of those character-driven novels where there is a lot of talking, very little actually going on, and by the end of which you're wondering what is it exactly you've just read. I am not too big of a fan of those. But "A Simple Thing" turned out to focus both on the characters and on plot. From the very first chapter it was obvious that Susannah is a woman who is not afraid to act, even if fear is what propels her. She, as well as her children, made things happen, and I liked that about them as much as I liked that Susannah recognized her mistakes and was willing to correct her course when necessary. She may seem flighty to some, but to me she is a woman figuring it out as she goes, and I feel that this makes her relatable for most people. Betty, the second protagonist, is her antipode in many ways, a solid, sure woman who makes plans and follows them, even if she realizes later on that she has made a mistake somewhere. The blurb on the back cover suggests that both Susannah and Betty undergo a transformation but I found this misleading. Suzannah is the one discovering herself and while Betty's story often mirrors that of the younger woman she has already recovered from the pain of her past and is now there to sympathize, listen, and provide a gentle nudge in the direction of healing.
There are a few good messages woven into this novel, and one of my favorites is the one that talks about the necessity of nurturing oneself. We forget about that much too frequently and it really is a universal truth that applies to both men and women, although women are the ones who need reminders most frequently. Susannah getting in touch with her artistic side after a hiatus of many years was the turning point of the book for me, echoed by Betty's recollection of the time whine she remembered that she was more than just a woman who took care of everything and everyone. The parallels between these two women's lives were eery at times, and while they are very different people their stories somehow anchored each other, showing that no matter how different the people the same principles of recovery apply.
For the most part this was a very enjoyable book filled with interesting characters (Barefoot stole every scene he was in and Katie definitely made things interesting with her indomitable spirit) and sage advice on subjects such as guilt, responsibility, knowing when to hold on and when to let go, and it worked for me until almost the very end when a dramatic event seemed to be too over the top to fit in with the rest of the story while remaining its climax. That chapter was well-written but it was just too much for me, although it did help Susannah put a lot of things in perspective and move forward with her life. Throughout the book this was a relatively subtle story with the struggle mostly internal and turning it almost into an adventure story at the eleventh hour seemed incongruent.
A friend offered me an ARC of this book when she somehow got two copies and I'm glad that she did. It is a solid novel and I won't hesitate to pick up other novels by Kathleen McCleary should I happen upon them. ( )

I think this is going to be my favorite book of the year! This was an amazing story in so many ways. If you were to ask me "What kinds of books do you like?" I say - this kind! Beautiful writing, excellent character development, outstanding scenery descriptions! Absolutely couldn't get any better. I loved this book! I just read and read but didn't want it to end. This book kind of reminded me of another one of my favorite books - "Still Life With chickens" which I have read twice! I have a feeling I will be re-reading this one sometime.

This book was just about - life. I got it, I understood it, I agreed with it! I am a real "scenery type person". I want to feel like I can just walk into the book, I want to feel like I am right there. I want to look it up on a map and know that I could go there and actually feel like I had been there before. This book made me feel all those things. I did look up those islands on Google maps and found them. I even looked up houses for sale in the area just to get a feel for what it was like. I know, I know I'm a strange person! But that's what I do for fun! LOL
This story really made me feel like I had been there. I could very easily picture everything, the cabins, the shore, the boats, the people, the kitchens, everything.

All through the book Susannah kept thinking that she was a terrible mother. And everyone else kept saying that she was too overprotective. But I didn't think that at all! If I found my 14 yr. old daughter passed out drunk and had to take her to the hospital - I would take them all to an Island too! I don't think she was too over protective at all. I think she was just right. This book really made me think about my choices as a mother. I think I would have done all the same things as Susannah did.

The character development for the teen daughter, Katie, was excellent! I have never believed in hitting kids, but I would have found it very difficult to resist smacking the heck out of that girl! Seriously! What a brat with a mouth (the worst kind!).
At one point in the book I had to stop reading - I knew it was going to be sad and it was just not a good time for me to be crying!
As I read on, I thought I was going to be disappointed in the ending - but I wasn't - the ending was great! Sad, and with a twist!

I am going to say - that if you like books about life, if you like books about family, about starting over, about island life, about friends helping each other - this is the Must read of the year!
Slight warning - some swearing, and adult situations. But I just don't think a teenager would be interested in reading this, it is definitely a woman type book. ( )

I don't read a lot of domestic fiction. Too often it's about the problems of suburban housewives/mommies or families with a much higher than average income and I just don't really relate having been neither of those categories. I was an urban mommy and have never had a stratospheric income. I decided I was interested in A Simple Thing because the story sounded different and also because it takes place on one of the San Juan Islands - one of my favorite places in the Pacific Northwest. As I child I was in a camp at the Seattle Zoo and one of thing things we got to do was go camping for a weekend in the San Juans and I've never forgotten the experience.

A Simple Thing did not disappoint. A good read with issues of anxiety, mourning, death, learning to trust, marriages ending or renewing, a new awareness of self threaded throughout. I loved that there were two stories here - that of Susannah and of Betty. The friendship that develops between the two women in the book and the ways their stories intertwined really works for the reader. They both gave me some things to think about. Highly recommended. ( )

This book, while a quick read, is so similar to all the other books out there: parents who just don't get along anymore, kids who are troubled, a move to the middle of nowhere to save the marriage, the kids, the sanity, etc. and then something life changing happens and everything is suddenly all better.

As I said before the book was a quick and entertaining read, but nothing really noteworthy or unique. ( )

Kids don't come with a manual. Frankly, even if they did, they wouldn't have read it so it wouldn't matter anyway. Marriages and relationships also don't come with a manual. I'd make a crack about husbands not reading one either but that's just too easy. Since there's no right answer to raising children or being a good partner, most of us just muddle along the best way we know how.

Susannah Delaney, in Kathleen McCleary's newest novel, is trying to do just that, even while she deals with her own complicated childhood history. Susannah's young teenaged daughter Katie seems to be going off the rails, running with the wrong sorts of people at school, drinking, and becoming closed off and sullen with family. Son Quinn, a quirky kid interested in animals and science and other things most kids don't care much about is being bullied unmercifully at school. Both of these things combine to drive Susannah to a desperate act: pulling the kids from school and their Virginia home to spend the rest of the year living on remote Sounder Island, one of the San Juan Islands off the coast of Washington, an island without electricity and only a handful of residents. In doing this, Susannah leaves behind her husband Matt, a man she has loved since she was a child and whom she risks losing completely as she struggles to do the best thing she can for her children.

But Susannah isn't just trying to rescue her chidren by moving to Sounder Island, she's also trying to face the long ago drowning death of her baby sister Jane, to forgive herself for not being able to protect Jane, and to forgive her mother for putting her child in harm's way. Susannah has spent her entire motherhood trying to protect her own children from all the things that could be dangerous to them, to shelter them from her worst nightmares, to be the mother that she blames her own mother for not being. But Katie, at least, is now rebelling against her mother's intense and worried love and the fears that have driven them all the way across the country to this remote place.

The woman who rents a cottage to the Delaneys is Betty Pavalak. She's a long-time widow whose son and grandchildren live on Sounder too. She is a charming and friendly neighbor who has her own ghosts of the past. Sounder Island was her own way to try and repair a floundering marriage so many years ago. She moved to the island so that her husband would be able to live away from the city and the paper-pushing job that was destroying him and so that he would be less likely to stray from their marriage. Despite his flaws, Betty stilled loved her husband and didn't want to lose him even starting to accept the idea that they would not be able to have children. And once on Sounder, she managed to become pregnant and have a son even if she couldn't change the fiber of who her husband was. But she also managed to come to peace with the path of her life as her husband worked most of the year in Alaska and she stayed behind on Sounder with their son and raised him alone.

The narrative slips seamlessly between both of these women who looked to this small island to heal themselves and their relationships. It also moves from present to past and back again as both Susannah and Betty's whole histories unfold. Susannah has to learn to accept her past before she can embrace her present. As she struggles with Katie's continued rebellion and with Matt's growing emotional distance and hurt at her unilateral decision to disappear for the year, she has to learn truths about herself before she can ease up and let life unfold at its own pace, making not only her family happier but herself as well. Betty, on the other hand, uses her wisdom and the care that she has spent the years cultivating to help Susannah and to add immeasurably to the lives of all those on the island whom she loves.

This is a novel of not just survival but of coming through hardships stronger than before. It is about learning to let go when necessary and to let love and trust carry the day, even if doing so is one of the hardest things ever. The back stories of both the women are engrossing although they are quite disparate in experience. Some of the issues raised, such as Quinn's being bullied disappear handily and while there's really no chance for him to be bullied on the island, the emotional ramifications of the bullying also disappear pretty easily. And given that Matt has been privy to Susannah's thoughts and feelings since before the accident that resulted in Susannah's sister Jane's drowning death and then also for so many years afterwards, he seems to have hit his breaking point sort of out of the blue now that she's not at home. But their marital woes are ultimately fixed fairly easily once Susannah faces her past and absolves herself of responsibility for Jane's death. Some of the emotionally laden situations are not developed to the extent that they might have been but in general, this novel of two women trying to make the right and best life they can for those they love is a quick and pleasing read. ( )