The Lauras

I did not hate this novel. Taylor can certainly write an engaging story and interesting characters as originally evidenced in her debut, [The Shore] (which I loved). But there is something very oblique about this book, a purposeful distance the author keeps between the reader and her characters. We never really get to know them, and while I recognize her message about how we never really do or can know anyone, her method of driving it home prevented me from ever warming up to the novel. The writing was compelling but the story itself never completely caught me up and ultimately left me cold.

3.5 stars

(Read for Early Reviewers)

The Lauras is energetic and infectious. Taylor has written a moving and original story, a coming-of-age that is defined by the narrator's relationship with their mother. Alex is a good character but at times felt a little two-dimensional, that being agender was their only character trait. (The explanations of being agender, while I'm sure are necessary for many readers, felt a bit forced as if they were added in edits--they didn't quite flow with the rest of the writing.) The dialogue was a bit stilted at times but as this was an advance copy it's possible that it's been edited!

I really loved the flashbacks into the mother's story--and the very well-done subtle indicators that Alex is understandably not always a reliable narrator. The show more Lauras is a great little novel. show less

"It's bothered me for as long as I can remember, the way the human compulsion to classify stands at odds with my feeling of falling outside the available categories. When I was a child at home it mattered less: my father was Man, my mother was Woman, I was myself. But when I went out into the world, or even to my grandparents' house, everyone seemed determined to put me into a box that I had no business being in, expected to think and act and want in ways that were consistent with a label with which I could not identify."

This adventure starts when gender-nonspecific 13-year-old Alex is awakened by her/his mom, trundled into the car, and told that they are leaving. As the miles roll along, mom tells stories of growing up, moving from show more foster home to foster home, making her way pretty much on her own. Thus enter the Lauras, a series of girls and women who meant much to mom as she made her way to adulthood. This road trip takes Alex and Alex's mom to various places of interest in mom's youth: through the south to Florida, then to Texas, Las Vegas, eventually to California and British Columbia. Along the way, Alex goes through the teenage coming of age, learning from mom's stories and discovering her/his own yearnings. One of the most compelling stories within this story is that of Annie, the daughter of an old friend whom they visit in Texas.

Taylor's exploration of categories, societal expectations and the internal experience of falling outside those, is rich and respectful. They are also subtly applied, leaving the reader to consider questions of gender, gender roles, and the notion of family at the reader's own pace.

This novel started slowly and it took a while for Alex and her/his mom to develop for me. However, it gained momentum around the halfway point and flourished into a satisfying read. It never quite lived up to the promise of Sara Taylor's debut novel, The Shore, but it's a solid contribution and I will continue to look forward to Taylor's future works.

I received an uncorrected proof copy for review from LibrayThing's Early Reviewer program. show less

I received an ARC of this book from First to Read.

Alex looks back on life on the road as a young teen 30 years prior. I assumed Alex was female, but realized well into the book that the gender is purposely unclear. Even without this twist, the story is unusual.

Alex's Ma wakes her (I'll use female pronouns for convenience) in the wee hours after one family fight too many, packs her and a few possessions into the car, and flees their Virginia home for points south. On the road, Ma reveals stories of her own turbulent past, while revisiting several sites to take care of unfinished business. When money runs low, they settle for longer periods, living in seedy apartments or motels while Ma waitresses/bartends and Alex attends school.

This show more continues for over 2 years. One common thread is the Lauras, women who may or may not have been named Laura, who were important in Ma's life. After adventures all over the country (some decidedly unpleasant and others more fun), they head for California (for some key unfinished business) and eventually across the border to settle in Canada. An epilogue fills us in on what happened after that, but the story felt a bit incomplete. show less

Sara Taylor’s novel, The Shore, captivated and confused me. Her most recent novel, The Lauras, has left me feeling the same. A mother, known as “Ma,” leaves her husband and home with 13-year-old Alex in tow. What follows is a two-year odyssey of visits to places on a road map of Ma’s former life where she comes to terms with or makes good on promises made years ago. While Alex’s mother may have a plan in mind that would explain their various stops in towns across the country, sometimes by the side of the road for a night or two, sometimes in a seedy motel for almost the length of a school year, she seldom clues Alex into this plan. Answers to questions are often met with “I’ll tell you later.” At times Alex is often show more willing to put up with much more than this reader. Where Ma deserves parental kudos is her support of Alex’s indifference to identify with a particular gender. For this I can forgive all of the other times she appeared to put her own needs above her child’s.

And who are the Lauras? They are girls Ma met over the years that made an imprint on her life. They’ve become place marks on the road map she carries on their cross-country journey. Surprisingly, not all of these girls were named Laura. As Ma explains to Alex, “…it just so happens that when I was born everyone was naming their daughter ‘Laura.’…When you’re eight or nine, say, and you make your first best friend, they’re the greatest person in the world and you know that you’ll be friends forever. But one day one of you moves away and they leave a vacancy. And then you meet someone with the same name, and because you’re eight part of you thinks not exactly that they’re the same person, but they were made from the same block of clay, maybe.” She goes on to say that when you’re forty, you look back and see that you have a whole string of “Lauras” behind you that the eight-year-old in you was using “to fill in the hole that the first Laura made.”

The Lauras has some lovely language and the characters, particularly Alex’s, are unique and well drawn. The conversations between Ma and Alex are distinctive and weirdly refreshing. I simply wondered at times whose story I was reading. It’s almost as though there’s a Part I and a Part II, the first belonging to Ma and the second to Alex. Either way it’s quite the road trip. show less

This is a story about a mother wanting to tie up loose ends in her past by visiting various places that had helped form her personality when she was younger. She brings along her 13 year old child who identifies as gender neutral and who recounts the mother's actions through the eyes of an adolescent who doesn't really understand the choices the mother has made. I found this story to be uneven both in the plot structure and the writing. Some of the situations they experienced were quite interesting but overall the characters did not leave much of an impression and the ending seemed forced as we finally meet the father who has been left behind.

In the middle of a spring night, 13-year-old Alex's mother hustles both of them into the car, puts Alex in the back seat with a blanket, and drives away from their home and Alex's father, with no explanation. All Alex knew was Ma and Dad had been fighting, again, and this time must have been the worst, or Ma would never have left.

The pair spends the next few years on the road, traveling from place to place, small town to small town, more or less in hiding, while Alex's mother works odd jobs to support them. Now and then Ma talks about her past; now and then they visit places and people Ma had known as she was growing up in foster care. Ma has loose ends to tie up.

Alex has loose ends, too. Mainly, Alex hasn't decided whether to present show more as male or female, and so alternates depending on mood and available clothing. While this usually doesn't cause trouble, Alex occasionally runs into people who don't understand and want to classify and categorize by gender. Ma is fiercely protective of Alex's genderqueer identity and won't stand for any nonsense from jackasses.

Told in the first person from Alex's perspective, this wandering road trip of self-discovery -- for both Alex and Ma -- is mesmerizing, beautiful, tender, gruff, and heart-wrenching. Life on the run isn't easy, but our stalwart nomads make the best of their circumstances, and eventually find themselves a satisfactory state of being.

Thank you to LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program for the opportunity to read this book. show less