Susan O

Alison McGhee offers a painful book for mothers and daughters and the words a daughter wishes she had said: "Why didn't I talk to her? Why didn't she talk to me? Why did we leave so much unsaid, back then, and still?" The daughter, the narrator, tells us she is the Winter of Words. Yes, indeed. No daughter can read this without what Emily Dickinson called a zero to the bone, particularly if her mother is gone and there is no chance for any more words.

I found it difficult to get through all the minutiae of a facility offering care for Alzheimer patients. Although I respected the author's carefully chosen words, these very words seemed out of place.

I confess that my not being a Jeopardy fan didn't help with my becoming engaged with the book but leaving that aside, I think this is a special book for a very special reader and not the general population.