Sunday, September 15, 2013

This Book Will Change Your Life - Goodnight Nobody by Ethel Rohan.

You exchange messages on Twitter. They are lively and interesting. You are a fan and this writer speaks to you as a reader. Now, there has been contact though, and the person is not just a writer you admire from afar, but a writer you speak to as a writer. You agree to exchange books, and that is what leads to Goodnight Nobody by Ethel Rohan showing-up in your mailbox. It is a beacon and a symbol of a connection made. Which is interesting in a book that is so literate about the subject of just how hard it is to build and maintain connections. With ex-spouses and dead spouses, new lovers and old, siblings, friends, and parents. Now, is it also true, that when we are drawn to an author and their work, we filter that work through what we want it to mean to us? We think so, and if that is true, it is no surprise to us, that this struggle to connect reads as a consequence of Rohan's characters' feeling trapped and unable to see their way clear of past pains and slights. We are drawn to these stories and struggles, just as we are drawn to Rohan and her work. And so it goes full circle. We would add, that we expect any collection titled Goodnight Nobody to draw on Goodnight Moon at some point along the way, and Rohan does so in the title story, a moment so beautifully captured, we had to pause for a moment and let the emotions wash over us before we could continue. It changed our lives, just as it is sure to change yours.

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