Jacqueline Sheehan
Author of Lost & Found
About the Author
Jacqueline Sheehan is a fiction writer, essayist, and psychologist. She is a New Englander, but spent twenty years living in the western states of Oregon, California, and New Mexico doing a variety of things, including house painting, freelance photography, and journalism. She is primarily a show more novelist but also writes essays like -Modern Love, The Writer, and Edible Pioneer Valley. Another job she held was being a commentator for Public Radio in Massachusetts. Her first novel, The Comet¿s Tale, was based on the life of Sojourner Truth. The next two novels, Lost & Found and Now & Then, were New York Times bestsellers. These novels were followed by Picture This, The Center of the World, and The Tiger in the House. Jacqueline edited Women Writing in Prison, a compilation from writing workshops with incarcerated women. She is the grateful recipient of writing fellowships at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland and Jentel Arts in Wyoming. She teaches writing workshops through Writers in Progress in Florence, Massachusetts, Women Reading Aloud with Julie Maloney, and at international retreats. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Jacqueline Sheehan
Picture This 1 copy
Selling the Lite of Heaven 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- Psychologist
Members
Reviews
Lost & Found by Jacqueline Sheehan
After Her husband unexpectedly dies, Rocky flees to Peaks Island, off the coast of Maine and takes a job as an animal warden. One of her first "finds" is an injured lab, who she nurses back to health, as he nurses her back from the abyss. The tale includes neighbor Tess, teen anorexic girl Melissa and interweaves in the story of the lab's former owner Liz & what happened to her, as pieces of the tale are lost....and found.
This was a pretty unusual piece of fiction in the sense it contained a host of varied, likeable, and interesting characters (a 39 year old woman, a 7 year old girl, two teenage girls, a 70ish year old woman, a 70ish year old African American man, and of course the hero of the book; a 5 year old labrador retriever) and yet the plot and the story itself were just plain silly.
This was a really quick read–something great for the beach or an airplane. Between a flight from Minneapolis to Orlando and an hour and a half in a beach chair, I’d knocked this one out. That could be looked at one of two ways. On the bright side, it’s a quick story to understand and digest and something quickly consumable. However, if you’re looking for something with more meat, you might want to save this one for later.
What I loved about the book was that it did just pull me along with the light and quirky characters. Although, that is quite a juxtaposition with the severity of the situations dealt with in the book–losing your husband young and a young girl with anorexia. While the writing was light, I do feel like those two topics were appropriately dealt with in the narrative.
On the other hand, I’m not a large fan of drawing me into the story with a death. The death in this case really didn’t tie into the story except for the fact that it provided motivation for Rocky to go to the island. To that end, it felt almost out of place within this particular story. The real hook to the story within the book comes when the dog arrives with an arrow protruding from his side. To me, that would have been enough of an enticement to draw me forward into the story.
Reposted from my blog: https://susanstradiotto.com/2018/12/13/lost-found-by-jacueline-sheehan/
… (more)
What I loved about the book was that it did just pull me along with the light and quirky characters. Although, that is quite a juxtaposition with the severity of the situations dealt with in the book–losing your husband young and a young girl with anorexia. While the writing was light, I do feel like those two topics were appropriately dealt with in the narrative.
On the other hand, I’m not a large fan of drawing me into the story with a death. The death in this case really didn’t tie into the story except for the fact that it provided motivation for Rocky to go to the island. To that end, it felt almost out of place within this particular story. The real hook to the story within the book comes when the dog arrives with an arrow protruding from his side. To me, that would have been enough of an enticement to draw me forward into the story.
Reposted from my blog: https://susanstradiotto.com/2018/12/13/lost-found-by-jacueline-sheehan/
… (more)
Enjoyable and heartfelt. Interesting to learn more about Nicaragua. Would have loved an Afterward to include details on historical research done. Book could have used a better title - one taken from the tale itself. Overall, a good read.
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 14
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 1,332
- Popularity
- #19,329
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 104
- ISBNs
- 49
- Languages
- 3
