Promises to Keep (edition 2010)

The recipes at the end of each chapter were a big turn-off for me, but ignoring them, this was one powerful book. The characters show real emotion, and it is obvious the story was based on reality- some things are just too crazy to be fiction. This is the first Jane Green novel I've read, and I'm not sure I want to go back and read the less personal stuff because I'm sure it would pale in comparison to this. ( )

Jane Green's characters are growing up. Sure, some of them are still looking for love, but many of them are now older and settled and facing the curveballs that life throws us all. In this wonderful, affecting tale of women, families, and friendship, she tackles that most heartrending of all curveballs: terminal illness.

Callie is a sought after photographer, happily married to the love of her life, and the mother of two young children. She is also a breast cancer survivor on the brink of her five years cancer-free. Her younger sister Steffi is becoming a celebrated vegan chef in NYC. She is a bit of a free spirit who has no desire to settle down and who has an instant attraction to the bad boys of the world, musicians, artists, etc. Lila, Callie's college roommate, has become an honorary sister to the Tollemache girls. She's very different from the radiantly happy Callie and the go-with-the-flow Steffi but she is finally in a relationship that fulfills her and allows her to be herself, even if her boyfriend is not a Jewish doctor but a Protestant Brit with a nasty ex-wife.

Callie's husband Reece travels often for work but when he is home, he and Callie have an incredibly strong and loving marriage. They live a fairly typical suburban existence, enjoying their friends, supporting their kids, and going about the daily life of living. Steffi, meanwhile is starting to get restless with her rock musician boyfriend so she offers to dog sit for Mason while he and his family spend a year in London. She knows that her boyfriend loathes dogs so she also knows that she is ending their relationship with this choice. Luckily Mason has a country home sitting untenanted only a few towns from Callie's that Steffi can use. This affords her the opportunity to change her life entirely, quitting her job and finding out what she really wants out of life, which surprisingly appears to include a quiet country life. Lila is moving on and committing whole heartedly to Ed and their future although she must decide whether her objection to motherhood or his desire to have more children (he has a son with his ex) will win out.

As all of their lives are moving forward, Callie starts to suffer from an intense headache that will not go away ultimately ending up in the hospital. When she is diagnosed with a recurrence of her cancer, this time contracting the rare leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, her family and friends circle around her as she travels a road that only she can travel.

Green has created likable, charming characters with whom the reader can identify. Even her minor characters like Walter and Honor, Callie and Steffi's incredibly mismatched parents, are well-rounded and realistic. And she has captured the devastation a terminal diagnosis has on everyone in this poignant and yet ultimately celebratory novel. As one life winds down, other lives must by definition continue forward despite the grief and uncertainty of the future and Green has illustrated this beautifully in the swirl of characters around Callie. There is some unecessarily heavy-handed foreshadowing of Callie's fate in the beginning of the book with reiterations of how happy and blessed she is in her life but overall, the whole of the gentle and loving narrative make this a minor flaw. The recipes following each chapter, are quite appealing even if sometimes a bit forced to fit with the narrative.

A look at abiding love and the constancy of family, this novel will probably appeal most to fans of women's fiction. And those who read the author's note about her friend Heidi will appreciate what a lovely tribute this is to a dear friend's memory. ( )

"It is about women remembering who they were before they had children."

Callie Perry has it all: a handsome, successful, although not flawless husband, wonderful children, a slightly wayward little sister, a successful photography business and generally a life full of love and wonder and laughter. So when her breast cancer returns as neoplastic meningitis (brain-related cancer), those she loves are shattered, but rally around her.

Normally I wouldn't pick this sort of book up, being a bit of a romance/chick lit snob, but I'd seen it positively reviewed around the place and it was just the ticket for a brain-free read. As you know, I didn't fare all that well with that bastion of chick lit, The Horse Whisperer. This, as you can see from the 9/10 rating, was a whole different receptacle of aqueous-dwelling vertebrates.

I loved pretty much all of the characters. Callie was a bit perfect, Stella was a bit bratty younger sister-ish, Mason clearly had an agenda, but I cared about them, I wanted their lives to keep being fluffy and pink. I loved the crazy earth mother Honor, and was pleased that Green chose to include enough back story that we could see where she came from.

And Green does not hold back with the heartbreak when the plot gets going. In a sense, there isn't much plot - lovely woman gets sick: effect on family. But Callie's illness is chronicled in enough detail to be very credible (it did not surprise me that Callie was based on a real life woman known to the author), but not so much that it's gory. Think Before I Die.

Plus it gets several extra points out of ten for including a recipe at the end of every chapter: Chocolate Chestnut Truffle Cake, Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle, Ginger Almond Chicken. Seriously, I'm going to have to hold onto this book for a while just so I can try out the recipes! ( )

Promises to Keep was clearly a labor of love for Jane Green. Using the life of a dear friend as motivation, Green wrote a love story about friendship and loss.

Cancer has taken a lot from all of us, and Green does a tremendous job showing how cancer affects not just the victim but also everyone who loves him or her. Callie believed she was a survivor, but when cancer strikes her again everyone who loves her puts aside their differences and rallies to her side, as they should.

It is this positive spirit though that started some problems for me with Promises. Living through my own cancer years with my husband, I understand that it forces people to come together. I also know that in many ways it tears us all apart. Promises would have been better for me if it had gone deeper. Instead I felt like it skimmed the surface and left a lot of emotion still on the table.

Ironically it was the main character-Callie-that I found the most one dimensional. I understand that Green wrote Promises in memory of her own friend, and I also understand that loss clouds our memory. But should Callie always be so perfect. She never cared that her husband worked late. She was a tremendous sister. She was a giving and generous friend.

Now I know that it is possible for people to be this way. I even have a few friends who I would categorize this way, but they also have faults. I wanted to see more of Callie’s bad side. I wanted to see her get angry more. I wanted to know her more.

At this point you might be asking, why did this novel get a four rating if she saw so much wrong with it?? Well, the answer is because Promises is a solid book despite these downsides. Every character is likeable, and you root for them along the way. The “true aspects” of Green’s back story force you to see that Promises means more than meets the eye. And the readability of this novel is perfect for summer: easy and fluid.

True, I wanted Promises to give me more “meat” to deal with, but Jane Green still gave me plenty to tackle. I enjoyed Promises to Keep, and I will definitely read more of Green’s work in the future. ( )

A good read. Very surprising - not your typical chick lit! I have actually used some of the recipes :) ( )