Jen Carter

One of the best books I have read in quite a while. Certainly the only book I have read recently that left me sobbing at the end. Langston Hughes wrote "What happens to a dream deferred?" And while much of Jen Carter's novel pivots around a collection of Renaissance poetry, and Hughes' poem never enters the narrative, as much as anything, his question is the heart of this remarkable novel. In fact, the poem could well serve as a review of the book itself. What, indeed, happens to a dream show more deferred? At age 23, Amy Winthrow finds out that the woman she grew up knowing as her grandmother, Nana Eva, was actually her great aunt. She's never heard the name of the woman who has just died bequeathing her an extensive library and money to continue her eduction. She quickly learns that any questions will only enrage her mother and bring silence from her Nana. And yet, in the language of 2017, she persists. In many ways, this book is a meditation on the role of art and artists, on love between siblings, on finding answers to questions we may not even know how to frame, on not settling. I highly recommend this book, and not just because the narrative keeps moving between two places I dearly love, the San Francisco Bay Area and Paris. show less

While the book was interesting it fell short for me in a bunch of places. I think it is because I did not like Amy enough to fall in love with the story. I did like the concept and thought the book was well written though.

This book was a bit slow to start, but I suppose it is natural for the first book in the series. There is a lot of background that has to be established.

The plot was good, with quite a few twists and turns that were quite unexpected. Unusually I did not recognize the murderer in the first few chapters. I was actually a bit surprised when the murderer was revealed.

I am not sure if this is the author's first book, but it seems like it. It was a good first effort. However, it was all over the place.

There are two different and parallel stories going on. First, it's a story about a young woman learning for the first time that she had a different grandmother than the woman she always believed was her grandmother. Then it's a story about the long-lost grandmother's life. The lives of both sort of intersect.

Even though plot and character development need show more work (as well as some good proofreading), the story was moving. I will look forward to reading something else by this writer as she matures. show less