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There are currently 22 member reviews
for Never Coming Back
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Claire M. (Wrentham, MA)
Words With Family
Words are wrapped around the heart of Clara Winter, sometimes they squeeze her so hard her heart races dangerously, threatening to tear her apart. Tamar Winter says little, explains less and is determined to do things her way, keeping her reasons to herself. How can a mother and daughter resolve misunderstandings of the past when they are engaged in a classic standoff? Coming of age is not a one-time process and it's not accomplished by ritual passages alone. The give and take of the mother-daughter relationship has new urgency as Clara faces the terrifying progress of her mother's disease.
The pulse of Clara's regular visits to Tamar acts like a metronome on the narrative, confining the action as surely as the mother and daughter are restrained by their life choices. With exquisite delicacy author McGhee reveals the emotional glue of these two eccentric, introverted and self-sufficient women. The small cast of intimate characters matches the spare nature of the Winters' lives and the Adirondack setting is true to isolated mountain life.
When the act of living is peeled back to its essence, then we hold on to what truly gives us meaning. What is that for Clara, for Tamar? Book group members will have much to discuss and ample opportunity for personal reflection as well.
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Beverly D. (Palm Harbor, FL)
Six stars!
This was the best book that I have read this year. I had tears streaming down my face more than once. Alison McGhee just "gets" the whole mother/daughter dynamic and has been able to put it down on paper without being overly cynical or overly sweet. Her writing evoked so many disparate emotions. Some of the passages were absolutely sublime. I highly recommend this book for adult readers as well as young adults...a perfect book club entry. Bravo!
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Julie M. (Golden Valley, MN)
Call Your Mother....Now!
Alison McGhee does a brilliant job of portraying what mothers will sacrifice for their children and the pain of watching a loved one disappear into the awful disease of early onset Alzheimers. Clara is living with regrets, secrets and loss. She blames her mother and has punished her by staying away for the most part of ten years. The further her mother Tamar aka "The Fearless" fades into the illness the more Clara longs to understand and get to know Tamar as both her mother and a person and to do that she needs to understand what really happened years ago. This novel is Clara's journey through fear and truth to forgiveness and love. The writing is spectacular, both tender and raw with well drawn characters. McGhee pulls you in swiftly and holds you until the end. Her characters and their feelings will stay with you long after you turn the last page and make you want to call your mother.
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Gretchen M. (Martinsburg, WV)
Mothers Were Teens Once Too
The author of this book gives an insightful look into a mother-daughter relationship that has ups and downs and lots of missed opportunities for real conversations about each other's lives. Clara has heartfelt regrets and questions about some of her mother's decisions and actions that come to light as her mother is plunged into Early-Onset Alzheimer's. I really enjoyed the author's style of writing and the gentle respectful way she presented Clara's mother's deterioration. Realizing that mothers are real people who were once young, vibrant and interesting people before they became mothers of teenagers is just one of the take-always from this story.
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Loretta F. (Fountain Inn, SC)
The Power of Words
This is so much more than another book about Alzheimer's disease. It's about the power of words to heal or harm, or to evoke calm or tension. Words connect us to the people we know and love in so many ways. Clara makes her living crafting just the right words to meet her client's needs. Yet, in her own life, she often struggles to find the right words to say to those she loves.
The book is also about accepting people as they are. I loved how Sunshine and Brown overlooked Clara's obvious poverty and eccentric mother to become her best friends.
The major theme is about relationships, especially the one between mother and daughter. Clara sees her mother through the cloudy lens of immaturity, not at all the way others view her. That changes as she begins to learn more about her mother.
I would recommend this book to any daughter who is not as close to her mother as she'd like to be. That is me, and I've learned some valuable truths here. Also, I think it would make for good discussion in book clubs.
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Connie H. (Evanston, IL)
Resolution
Alison McGhee realistically conveys the discomfort of waiting for lucid moments to make a connection with a loved one with a loss of intellectual capacity. The pacing of this book mirrors this experience requiring some patience, patience which is rewarded in the thoughtful writing and in a realistic resolution.
After a distressing breakup with her high school love, Clara is pushed by her mother, Tamar, to go away to college. She flees brokenhearted and angry toward her headstrong and tight-lipped mother. As early onset dementia strikes her mother, Clara returns.
This should be a time for forgiveness and coming to terms with the past, but Clara has said things in anger that she cannot take back, and her mother remains obscured by past silence and current confusion. Slowly Clara attempts to peel away the past, address her anger, fears and desires.
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Beverly J. (Hoover, AL)
Well-written and completely absorbing!
A compassionate and unflinching deeply moving testament to the bond between mothers and daughters enduring life's curve balls. Clara Winter knows her mother, Tamar, loves her despite not always understanding her taciturn mother's staunchly independent behavior. Clara's adult life is plagued by questions she believes only her mother can answer. But now her mother has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's and as time is running out for the resolutions to these issues, Clara begins to wonder if she really knows who her mother is. This storyline is brilliant and piercing as Clara seeks to provide as much comfort to her mother and explores who is her mother and in turn who she is. A standout in both craft and theme I was absorbed by the sensitive exploration of the effects of Alzheimer's on the patient and their family and friends, and by the atmospheric writing of the small Adirondack towns. Keep a tissue handy as this is a heartfelt story!
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