Jennifer R. (Kittymama) reviewed on 4/21/2006 + 107 more book reviews

In the seventies, Mimi and Mark Doyle were famous folk singers. Although they had two daughters, Catherine and Joely, their devotion was to each other. Then one day Mark goes out for a new guitar string and a pack of cigarettes and never comes back. For more than 30 years, Mimi waits for her beloved husband to return. As she dwells within a haze of alcohol and illusions, her daughters grow up on their own. Catherine, now pregnant, raises sheep for the high-fashion sweaters she creates. Joely holds a Ph.D. in biomedical engineering and lives in Scotland with a widower and his precocious daughter. When Mimi suffers a stroke and sets the house on fire, Joely feels obligated to go home and help Catherine take care of her. Bretton, with her insightful observations, gets to the core of her characters in this novel about the many roles women play--wife, daughter, sister, mother, lover--whether by choice or by the force of circumstance. Commitment, avoidance, love, and guilt--Bretton, a master storyteller, superbly dramatizes a great range of emotions in this compelling tale.

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