Originally Posted: May 28, 2010
Mood: appreciative
Just finished reading Girls in Trouble by Carolyn Leavitt, and was really drawn in and charmed by this book–the story of an open adoption gone wrong. Leavitt has such profound and sympathetic insight into her characters that you can’t help but love them too. She has an amazing gift for plunging deep into wildly divergent perspectives, somehow allowing us to appreciate and empathize with all sides of a very complex and emotionally charged dilemma. Though the prose here isn’t particularly lyrical (it’s more spare), Leavitt’s poetic gift is in her almost psychic understanding of human nature–what makes us vulnerable, where we are blind, what brings out the worst and best in our natures. Each of the characters in this story has something huge at stake, each makes dreadful errors. But ultimately, they do the best with the choices they have made. A humane and psychologically compelling read by a gifted author!
Posted by: Dori