Broken For You

I started to like this book when Margaret Hughes went home and asked her possessions if she could take on a boarder. I liked it even more when Mrs. K, a wonderfully meddling, caring, Jewish, bowling, red-headed old lady was introduced. Though the book does take some unlikely turns, and it could probably have been a bit shorter, it was a really enjoyable read. Tenderly written, full of history, character-driven, and intelligent.

The audiobook narrator was amazing. Not only did she create unique voices for all the main characters, she also sang and performed the following accents: Irish, British, Southern, French, and Yiddish. Wow.

I started this book, really couldn't get into it, so put it aside. In the meantime, a friend read it and loved it. At her urging, I picked it up again -- this time, I really liked it.

The title is perfect, in so many senses, some that become clearer as the book progresses. What starts out to be two isolated, clearly broken "Eleanor Rigby" women gel into a family, along with the rag-tag recruits who affix themselves into their lives. But that's the cheater's description. The book is so much more, in such unexpected ways.

There is a point, where a character is cooking and the following passage occurs, where he is describing how his grandmother taught him to cook:

"'Slow down, boychick' she was always saying. 'Cooking is not to rush. It's a

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prayer. A gift of love. It's a family. It's standing in the company of your ancestors and feeling their hands, helping you.'" Bruce started weaving the strands into braids. "When you're Jewish, everything that matters happens in the kitchen."

Despite the fact that I was en route to my nephew's Bar Mitzvah, I didn't expect to be poleaxed by a fundamental truth of my Jewish heritage. Nor did I expect to stumble into the creation of art that matches very much some of my artistic tendencies, or a philosophy of giving I've always wished to be able to carry out. I didn't expect to see one of the characters break in so many ways, and resurrect into something that could take "broken" and make it beautiful. I just didn't expect...

I passed this book on to my cousin, simply because of the above quote. Glad I picked this up again and finished it this time. show less

"The dead, Margaret thought. They can be so loud." So muses the protagonist of this dreamy, powerful tale of familial warring, secrets and redemption. When elderly Margaret Hughes discovers that she has a malignant brain tumor, she refuses treatment and decides to take a nice young tenant into her huge, lonely Seattle mansion for company. What she gets is Wanda Schultz, a tough-as-nails stage manager who is secretly seeking the man who left her and prone to inexplicable weeping breakdowns. Wanda, ignorant of Margaret's illness, is intrigued by the museum-like house and its eccentric owner—so when Margaret unexpectedly invites her to a drink-champagne-and-break-the-priceless-antique-china party for two, she's delighted. But a dark show more history lurks; the houseful of gorgeous antique porcelain comes from Margaret's father's WWII pilfering of European Jewish homes. Meanwhile, Wanda's father, who deserted her years ago, is on the road trying to heal, and Margaret's mother's ghost is haunting the Seattle mansion, lounging about in expensive peignoirs and criticizing her only daughter. Wrestling to keep the dead and the ghosts of their pasts at bay, the two women slowly build an extraordinary friendship, and when Wanda discovers a talent for mosaics, the past begins to quiet. Though it takes a while to get started, this haunting and memorable debut is reminiscent of early Atwood, peopled by lovably imperfect and eccentric characters. show less

My friend Sandy gave this to me as a birthday present. We had heard Kallos talk about her second book at the Georgia Center for the Book earlier in the month. This is one of those books that once into it I could not put it down. It is written on so many levels. It begins with essentially two characters, Margaret and Wanda, then adds them one or two at a time layering them, until when Margaret finally dies (predicted in the first chapter) there is an entire house of gainfully occupied people. Leaving with Margaret were two ghosts, her mother and son. Generally speaking this is not my kind of book, but I really enjoyed it.

Margaret Hughes has spent most of her life sealed off from others in her large home. Facing terminal cancer, she asks a waitress what she would do if she had only a year or two left to live, "I'd do what scares me the most...Do the opposite of what I've always done." Margaret decides to open her home to a boarder which introduces the other main character, Wanda, a young woman on a single-minded quest to find the lover who has dumped her. Their encounter changes their lives and a growing circle of other "loners". It is ironic that as Margaret works to create an environment to die in, she actually creates a vibrant, healthy surrogate family and meaning for her life. There are many characters in the book and lots of sub-plots that move show more along at a steady pace. My main criticism of the book is that there are way too many coincidences in the story and it definitely strains credulity. But I found it very engrossing and came to care about the characters. show less

Intriguing. All of the characters were "broken" in some way. Margaret lives alone with a collection of valuable antiques for company. She places an ad and takes in Wanda as her first boarder. The back story of the antiques is that they were stolen by the Nazis and Margaret's father knowingly bought them. Margaret traced and returned what she could, but she can't find the owner's of the rest. One drunk day, Wanda and Margaret smash Margaret's wedding china to smithereens, which launches Wanda's new career - she has a gift for putting the pieces into interpretive mosaics. Margaret adds more boarders, much to her ex-husband's dismay, now forming her surrogate family out of the broken people she befriends.

Overall, this book was interesting, but in some places it was confusing and slow. Eventually it circled back and filled in the gaps, answering the questions I had. The concept was unique. I know other books have been written about strangers changing each other, but this book did it in a new way. I don't think I saw what was going to happen just by reading the description of the book. The characters were well developed, although there were many, and sometimes I had to take a second to remember who was who. I wasn't especially happy with the ending, as it seemed kind of abrupt. Basically all the plot lines had concluded, yet it seemed like there should have been more...I'm not sure how to explain that, exactly.

I would recommend this book show more to anyone that likes good fiction, but doesn't want to read something supernatural or fantasy. This is a good, general fiction novel that has a feel-good story. show less