Sylvia Sandon always swore she wouldn't become her mother. But one August morning she finds herself walking the same path as the fervently religious yet faithless Elaine...into an affair she feels powerless to resist. Against the backdrop of California brush fires in the 1970s, twelve-year-old Sylvia had agreed to hold a secret that would devour her family's dream of happiness. Now struggling to create a better life in small-town New England, Sylvia...
I bought this book at a walmart of all places, setting next to the familiar Nicolas Sparks novels. I haven't finished the book yet, I'm at that critical part, 1:35 in the morning, that I know I'll be staying up all night to finish it or fall asleep trying. The style is smart but not presumptuous, and beautifully captures the essence of what it means to be a woman, to grow into being a woman, and all the stark feelings accompanying...
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What a pleasure--a debut novel with writing so intense and lyrical that it causes the reader to ache with the characters' own pain. Indeed, Outside the Ordinary World tells a painful story; the ghosts from artist Sylvie Sandon's childhood are gathering in the wings, holding her family and her happiness hostage until she lets go of guilt and anger. Alternating between Sylvie as a child in California and the adult Sylvie in...
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Let me tell you why I love this book. Have you noticed the current trend in fiction these days - I have, I buy them for a living -many of the popular ones tell good stories, and more often than not they feature protagonists who are supernatural or canine or both. They are engrossing, for the length of time it takes to read them, but they lack an individual persona like a preteen who relinquishes her stunning uniqueness for...
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I wish I were still working at a bookstore so I could hand sell this "Outside the Ordinary World." It's no pun that there's a motherlode of topics to fascinate and transfix readers, and after finishing I kept thinking what a great time a book club could have spending an evening dissecting the characters, mother-daughter-granddaughter relationships, the enormous and life-changing choices made, and the ripples that continue...
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There are so many things I love about this novel. Like Sylvia's separate but echoing stories of her childhood and her adulthood, which are beautifully blended and woven together. And like Ostermiller's descriptions of intense moments caught in time - young Sylvie's mother curled in the patch of sunlight on the rug in the empty yellow room. I think the real genius of this book is the way the author captures the complexity...
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