Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Book Review - Going to Solace - Amanda McTigue


Going to Solace
Title:     Going to Solace

Author:  Amanda McTigue

Review: This is the story of a town with a hospice and you get to follow a few of the residence that go there to die, also the hospice does out-patient care.  The book follows several residence and their lives.  I enjoyed the fact that the chapters were titled with which characters were talked about in that chapter.

The writing is good, yet the book moves slowly.  I found myself putting it down way more then I like.  I found the slow moving to be a pain and yet the story was interesting so I’m not sure what the disconnect was.  I read this book for about two months.  I would pick it up and read for ten minutes or so and then put it down to do something else.  It moved too slowly to keep my attention for long.

I finished the book in the car waiting for my son.  I had nothing else to take my attention and I cried at the end.  It is a nice story that many people will enjoy. 


Publisher:  Published August 15th 2012 by HarperDavis (first published July 14th 2012)
Copyright: 2012
Pages:  292
ISBN:    9780985493004
Quick Review:  3 stars out of 5
Where I obtained the book: Sent by the publisher for review.


Synopsis:  Going to Solace
Debut Novel by Amanda McTigue
We're in Big Piney and Little Piney, two hollows just outside the town of Garnet in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. It's 1989. Thanksgiving is just around the corner. A handful of mismatched folks--some country people, some far-flung, fancy people--discover they have one thing in common: someone they know is sick, real sick, dying sick. Their paths cross as they go to Solace, a local hospice.
August Early has never set foot in a hospital before. Maggie Dulé packs a bag despite her vow never to return to the Pineys again. Burnice Kling, R.N., is fixing to "fire" her patient, a "cantankerous old cauliflower of a woman" and mother to an estranged daughter named Maggie. Meanwhile Cadence Greevey passes among them unnoticed. She's a "big-little girl" whose thinking hasn't kept up with her growing. Her mama's ailing and there's no one home to help.
Suddenly they find themselves functioning as caregivers, bedside improvisers, doing all they can to beat back death or "hurry him on about his business."
Through chapters that interweave points of view--funny-sad and sad-funny--multiple stories become one. Steeped in the rich flavor of the Appalachians, this debut novel offers comfort in comfortless times, illuminating the altered states of shock and clarity that visit us as our loved (and hated) ones pass from this world to the next.
 Amanda McTigue
Author Biography:  Amanda McTigue is a novelist, children's book author, published short story writer and produced playwright.

GOING TO SOLACE is her debut novel set in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Published by Harper Davis, you'll find it available on Amazon shelves in hardcover, paperback and e-reader formats.

Also on Amazon are her children's books: ONCE UPON A LULLABY, (both the book and companion CD of beautiful songs for bedtime) and DREAMTIME, a cycle of poems for bedtime reading. These full-color books feature the illustrations of two five-year-old young girls, Kenney Knisely and Daisy Samuelson.

Other Reviews:  Goodreads, Amazon

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