Book 10 - 2017
Book 10: State of the Union by Douglas Kennedy - 436 pages
Description from bookdepository.co.uk:
Hannah Buchan thinks herself ordinary. She is not the revolutionary child that her painter mother and famous radical father had hoped for. Raised in the creative chaos of 1960s America, Hannah vows to reject her parents' liberal lifestyle, and settles instead for typical family life in a nondescript corner of Maine. But normality isn't quite what Hannah imagined it would to be, and try as she might to fight it, the urge to rebel against the things that hem her in grows ever stronger. Eventually, a series of encounters puts Hannah in an exhilarating but dangerous position - one in which she never thought she would find herself. For decades, this one transgression in an otherwise faultless life lies buried deep in the past, all but forgotten - until a turn of fate brings it crashing back into the limelight. As her secret emerges, Hannah's life goes into freefall and she is left struggling against the force of the past. State of the Union is a stunning and grippingly honest story about life, love and family, set against the backdrop of two different but strikingly similar eras.
Thoughts:
Another book that I picked up at the local $2 biannual book fair, and I won’t deny that I picked it up because of the title - I thought it had a political theme (it could be argued that it does, but its tenuous). Having said that, I absolutely fell in love with it and flew through reading it. Hannah’s story, the manipulation she faces from a variety of fronts, and the growth she gets out of her experiences, and emancipating herself from her situation, is juxtaposed beautifully against that of her daughter’s story. The setting, New England, helped too; I love the region. Kennedy has no trouble writing a realistic lead female character, and I felt equal parts sad and happy for Hannah as her story came to a resolution (I kind of wanted to punch her husband by the end). Reminds me of a Jodi Picoult book without the jumping from perspective and dramatic twist ending. I will definitely read more of Kennedy.
10 / 50 books. 20% done!
3854 / 15000 pages. 26% done!
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