Retrato do autor

Maria Goodin

Autor(a) de From the Kitchen of Half Truth

3 Works 121 Membros 13 Críticas

Obras por Maria Goodin

From the Kitchen of Half Truth (2013) 94 exemplares
Nutmeg (2012) 23 exemplares
The Storyteller's Daughter (2012) 4 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Sexo
female

Membros

Críticas

Big Fish is a favorite of mine and I was interested in this book because the storyline reminded me of Big Fish.
There's a girl (she's 21) whose mother has spent her entire life lying/elaborating the story of her life.
When the girl's mom gets very sick and she is aware her mother is dying, she wants to spend every moment with her and she wants to get to the bottom of her mother's stories.
There's a huge level of guilt involved because she knows her mother clings to these stories, but she can't bring herself to lose any chance of knowing her own stories when she loses her mom.

I found one character almost completely unlike able (Mark) and one so likeable that he's practically a guardian angel (Ewan).

… (mais)
 
Assinalado
Mishale1 | 8 outras críticas | Dec 29, 2018 |
Meg's mother is a compulsive and eccentric cook, who has told Meg all kinds of crazy stories about her birth and early childhood. Meg believed everything until her schoolfriends started calling her a liar. She can't remember anything herself, so when she realises that her mother's stories are not true, she feels quite lost. She gives up on fiction and grows up to become a brilliant scientist. Then when her mother is dying, she has the chance to find out about her real past... and it's quite disturbing.

Very well-written; the characters are a little caricatured, but it didn't matter. Quite thought-provoking, too, showing how difficult it can be to separate fact from fiction, and leaving open the question of whether it may sometimes be best to live in a world of fantasy. I loved the odd stories that Meg's mother told her, and found parts of the story very moving. I was surprised at how positive and satisfying the bittersweet ending was, too.

Recommended.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
SueinCyprus | 1 outra crítica | Jan 26, 2016 |
Touching story of a mother/daughter relationship that is imbued with whimsy , humor and sadness.
 
Assinalado
Cricket856 | 8 outras críticas | Jan 25, 2016 |
Review first published on fefferbooks.com. A free advanced reader copy of this book was provided by Sourcebooks Landmark in exchange for an honest review. The review below is in no way influenced by this consideration.

For months, now, I’ve been on the lookout for a good, clean, read I can recommend wholeheartedly for a book group. This, friends, is it!

When I came across the ARC for From the Kitchen of Half Truth, it was called [b:Nutmeg|411471|Nutmeg|David Lucas|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1174515154s/411471.jpg|400732], which I found charming. I’m not sure what’s up with the wordy title change, but don’t let that put you off from this delightful, kitchy, lovely little novel.

Meg, or “Nutmeg,” is a young woman who returns home to visit her mother, only to discover that she’s not quite well, and needs some help. She decides to stay, and while she’s there, see if she can learn some truths about herself. Meg’s grown up with a life story that makes no real sense at all–all of her childhood stories are clearly fairy tales, conjured up out of her mother’s wild and slightly silly imagination. Meg, herself, is a scientist with a promising career in genetic research, and has reached a point in her life when she simply has no more patience for her mother’s flights of fancy, particularly when it comes to her own past. The two seem at cross purposes, but Meg’s search for the truth about her history ends up revealing all kinds of things about her relationship with her mother, and others around her.

I can’t say enough lovely things about this novel. The writing is not technically perfect, but it’s close–nothing about it is distracting enough to draw readers away from the charming tale Goodin weaves. The story could, on first description, sound superficial, but I was impressed by Goodin’s ability to dig deep and draw out some real, raw emotions in her characters and me, as her reader. I admit to being a little confused by where things were going during the first bit of the novel, but not so much as to be put off–it’s clear that Goodin’s taking us somewhere, and trying to get us to understand the slightly off-kilter reality in which her main characters live. Things start to come together before too long, and the convention is effective.

In all, this is a delightful little novel, and I was thrilled to have had the chance to read it. Completely clean. 4 stars.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
fefferbooks | 8 outras críticas | May 12, 2014 |

Estatísticas

Obras
3
Membros
121
Popularidade
#164,307
Avaliação
4.0
Críticas
13
ISBN
22
Línguas
4

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