This book was for me a very powerful study of parent-child relationships and the failures which can occur. The fact that the narrator's parents are shown to be clearly both "good" and "bad" made it a realistic analysis. The way we deal with the problems in our relationships was also well covered.

Here's a quote which shows one aspect of what I like about this book:
"What I wanted was the happiness I'd known as a child before I'd found out that even if things were the best they could be, you were always right on the brink of that bone-chilling isolation because people who were the closest to you- like your mother or father or brother or lover - could turn on you, turn from you."
I didn't find the language (swearing) a problem....I suppose that reflects on me! ( )

2887 Salt Dancers, by Ursula Hegi (read 11 Jul 1996) This is a 1995 novel and although I so liked her Stones From the River, I was really disappointed in this book. It seemed so pointless. The book abounds in gratuitous grating 4-letter obscenities--so repulsive when the writing is otherwise so elegant, even if it seems to have nothing overly-meaningful to say. I do not propose to read anything more by Hegi. ( )

pregnant woman returns to visit abusive father & face childhood ( )