If You Had a Family

Rating:
Summary: A touching story of a woman's search for family
Review: Barbara Wilson paints a beautiful story of realization in "If You Had a Family," a novel that clearly hits close to home (Wilson herself was raised in a Christian Scientist home, as was the family of the main character). Cory's struggle to accept the past and painlessly integrate her memories into her present is portrayed in a gentle and loving manner; though nearing forty, Cory is still a child, still in need of a family and feeling the effects of living alone in a world full of mothers, none of them hers.

We sympathize also with Cory during her awkward attempts at finding a surrogate outlet for the emotions that have been repressed within her for decades. A blossoming relationship with activist lawyer Rosemary Reardon (who is a good contrast character to Cory's--one of a brood of Irish Catholic children, she is bubbly where Cory is blase) provides solace for Cory, as does her acquaintance with her brother's children, who in a sense are also hers.

Rating:
Summary: A touching story of a woman's search for family
Review: Barbara Wilson paints a beautiful story of realization in "If You Had a Family," a novel that clearly hits close to home (Wilson herself was raised in a Christian Scientist home, as was the family of the main character). Cory's struggle to accept the past and painlessly integrate her memories into her present is portrayed in a gentle and loving manner; though nearing forty, Cory is still a child, still in need of a family and feeling the effects of living alone in a world full of mothers, none of them hers.

We sympathize also with Cory during her awkward attempts at finding a surrogate outlet for the emotions that have been repressed within her for decades. A blossoming relationship with activist lawyer Rosemary Reardon (who is a good contrast character to Cory's--one of a brood of Irish Catholic children, she is bubbly where Cory is blase) provides solace for Cory, as does her acquaintance with her brother's children, who in a sense are also hers.