All She Ever Wanted

by Lynn Austin

Paperback, 2005

Status

Available

Call number

813.54

Publication

Bethany House Publishers (2005), Edition: Reprinted, 400 pages

Description

Fiction. Christian Fiction. Historical Fiction. HTML:All She Ever Wanted presents the stories of three generations of women who left home on a journey to escape her family's mysterious past and to start a new life.

User reviews

LibraryThing member cbl_tn
Kathleen Seymour's relationship with her teenage daughter, Joelle, is at a breaking point. Kathleen is afraid that Joelle will leave home and never return, just like several generations of the women in Kathleen's family. Will learning about each woman's story help Kathleen and Joelle repair their
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relationship, or will it drive them farther apart?

This book reminds me of an old country song, You Never Even Called Me By My Name. As the supposedly-perfect song seems to come to an end, performer David Allan Coe protests that it's not the perfect country song because there's been no mention of Mama, trains, pickup trucks, prison, or getting drunk. The last verse takes care of these omissions. It starts "I was drunk the day my Mom got out of prison..." This book has the same feel. It's like the author took a chronology of the 20th century and made a list of all the significant events she wanted to include: Irish immigrants, New York tenements, sweatshops, Prohibition, speakeasies, Black Tuesday, the Depression, mobsters, Communism, World War II, factories, USO dances, the Cold War/fallout shelters, the Kennedy assassination. (There are also Mamas, prisons, and people getting drunk, but I don't remember any mention of trains or pickup trucks.) Take this paragraph, for example:

Even at the tender age of nine, she had already perfected the art of making a grand entrance. She waved her hand like Mamie Eisenhower and called out, "Hello-oo, I'm here-ere," as if we had been holding our breath, waiting for her to arrive. You would have thought she was Elvis Presley the way the other girls gathered around her. May and I had never been in the same class before, but the rest of the kids already knew that if a Hayworth was your classmate, you could expect a small truckload of treats at all the class parties. The Hayworths were the richest family in town. May's brother, Ron, who was two years older than May, ruled the playground the way Jimmy Hoffa ruled the Teamsters.

Several of the characters behaved either inconsistently or illogically. The characters didn't feel like people in their own right, but like vehicles to convey an evangelistic message. It seems that the author doesn't want the reader to miss the message, so it's explicitly stated. Unfortunately, by choosing to "tell" rather than "show", the author tells a story that most readers will quickly forget rather than one that will leave a lasting impression.
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LibraryThing member debs4jc
Plot Summary: What happens, When & Where, Central Characters, Major Conflicts
Kathleen doesn't like to talk about her past. But a confrontation with her daughter and an invitation from her estranged sister force her to open up about her background. As she and her daughter travel to the New York
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town where she grew up, she tells her about what it was like to grow up in extreme poverty, with a dad who was a thief and a mother who was chronically depressed and ill. Kathleen never wanted to visit the places and people that caused her so much pain again. But returning to her hometown gives her a chance to learn the truth about Eleanor, her once vibrant mother, and Fiona, the grandmother she barely knew.


Style Characterisics: Pacing, clarity, structure, narrative devices, etc.
Shifts from Kathleen's point of view to those of her mother's best friend, her grandmother, her uncle, and her mother. The story unfolds slowy, with pieces gradually falling into place. Sometimes the way the characters talk is too much like the author's own detailed way of describing the story--the switchining points of view while a character is supposed to be telling their story leaves you wondering if they really told it the way the author told it or more like the way people talk. So the dialogue seems unrealistic at times. But the characters and the lessons they learn are meaningful and the places and situations so well described that it is easy to get caught up in the story.



How Good is it?
A strong tale exloring the consequences of the decisions made by 3 generations of women.
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LibraryThing member judyg54
This was a story that grabbed my attention and held it all the way through. You have to keep your focus though, because it switches back and forth to the present time and then takes you back to the past and helps you understand the main character and the reasons for why her grandmother, Fiona, her
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mother, Eleanor, and herself had struggles in their life. It is not a feel good, romantic novel, but a very well told story of the lives of three generations of women, and understanding all they went through.

Kathleen fled her home 35 years ago, running from poverty and shame. An invitation to go back to her hometown is initially cast into the trash. But after a huge disagreement with her daughter and a failure to communicate with her, her husband suggests that Kathleen and her daughter, Joelle, take the road trip and get to know one another. So begins the story; first Kathleen will have time to tell Joelle her story and the sad life she once lived. Then others will begin to weave the story behind Kathleen's mother and then Kathleen's grandmother. It was all very well written and kept me constantly keeping each lady separate, but recognizing how they all affected one another.

I had a hard time putting this story down once I began. It is a sad story really, but I felt the truth that Kathleen's father shared at the end of the book showed how Christ can truly change a person and the bitterness and sadness can be replaced with the peace that comes from knowing Him! Well done Lynn Austin.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

2005

Physical description

8.25 inches

ISBN

0764228897 / 9780764228896

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