"Intriguing drama"

In her late forties, Charlotte Warren has become increasingly neurotic about life as she is a compulsive worrier. Unable to sleep at night and a bundle of nerves during the day, Charlotte has been divorced for fifteen years from Joe, who she sometimes misses in the lonely darkness. However, her biggest concern besides some imaginary thief breaking and entering her home is her passionate living twenty-two years old daughter who lives life with gusto.

Emily arrives home on a visit, but this time has brought with her Walter, the black man she plans to move in with. Charlotte is stunned but has a new reason to panic as she fears her daughter's "alternate living arrangement" selection as mixed relationships are difficult. However, the appearance of Walter and Emily does more than just turn Charlotte into a nervous wreck; that first weekend shatters the older woman's memories as events she buried in the furthest reaches of her mind has arisen like an avenging Phoenix.

This is an intriguing look at an individual struggling with a compulsive disorder that keeps her from fully functioning in society. Readers' hearts will go out to Charlotte whose palpitations and fears can be felt on almost every page of the tale. Of interest is how opposite her daughter who lived much of her life with her mother (Joe had visits and ultimately moved far away to Seattle) has turned out; sort of as if she has had a reaction formation to the phobic driven lifestyle of her mother. Though somewhat dark in tone, Elisa Juska paints a portrait of a woman in trouble from demons running amok in her head.

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted August 19, 2004

Summary

With her free-spirited daughter away at college and her "hip" ex-husband living across the country, Charlotte has grown used to being alone. For the most part, she prefers it. She relies on familiar routines: manicures, grocery shopping, game shows. But at night, no matter how hard she tries (and in spite of the Dream Machine her daughter Emily sent her) she can't stop her logical mind from running wild -- imagining burglars, strange noises, and all manner of trouble that might befall her fearless daughter. Having just graduated from Wesleyan with a pierced tongue and an arsenal of opinions, Emily has always been passionate about her beliefs -- from mindfulness to vegetarianism to her new live-in boyfriend. Though Charlotte rarely understands her, she's learned to keep her doubts to herself. But when Emily and the new boyfriend arrive for a weekend visit, secrets are revealed that compel Charlotte to take a stand. Forced to examine her own life choices, she's about to learn she can't control everything. What she can do is open her heart to new possibilities, and to the fact that headstrong Emily might have a thing or two to teach them all.