I couldn't help gobbling up Forever Rose (OMG Caddy!). What to do now that the saga has concluded, read them all again? OK!. Phew, that's settled. It is very heartening to find that Rose has her own blog which is even updated on occasion, so that provides a little Casson fix now and then at least.
I took a detour after that and read a non-YA, non-middle-grade book, Jennifer Weiner's Certain Girls. It was actually my very first Weiner book. I really enjoyed it, and I'm trying to figure out why I was so resistant to reading her books in the past. Probably it's because I'm contrary by nature and I liken bestseller lists to being told what to do.
I'm definitely closer in age to the main character in the book than to her young teenage daughter, and I suppose it can be attributed to my reading so much YA that I was downright surprised at relating so much more to Cannie. I found Joy, the daughter, to be a super pill through most of the book, but her storyline was still interesting to me, particularly when she became obsessed with her mother's novel and the ensuing speculation about Cannie's sexual past. Realizing that parents have lives in any way independent from their own is a rite of passage in itself, but when sexual awareness starts surfacing--especially in this case, where she's too afraid to ask her mother how close a resemblance her sex-studded work of fiction bears to her real life and the circumstances of Joy's illegitimate birth--it particularly fascinates me. There are adults who haven't come to terms with their parents as sexual beings, preferring to live in denial, and obviously there's a blind spot when it comes parents to their growing children. What is it about sex that is so divisive and makes people so squeamish? That's a real question, I'm genuinely always thinking about it. I'll just leave that thought dangling, as it's unlikely it will ever be finished.
Next in the rotation: Debbie Harry Sings in French. Ooh la la!
Written material © 2008 Dawn Emerman
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