Novel review

I liked the novel “Things I want My Daughters to Know” because this book portrayed a love between mothers and daughters, sisters, and others. Although I liked this book but actually I didn't like it. As the once full of life Barbara Forbes is begins a journal of things that she wishes to share with her four daughters. She also writes each of her daughters an individual letter to be opened only after her death. There is Lisa, the oldest and most like her, full of life yet stubborn, too; Jennifer, married but obviously unhappy although refusing to talk to anyone about it. Amanda, the daughter who Barbara always considered her “own”, as no father was around to raise her and Hannah, Barbara’s late in life baby, now left alone with her father, Barbara’s grieving and lost second husband, Mark.

The novel opens on the day of Barbara’s funeral, and so I get to know Barbara only through her writings. The story is told from varying perspectives in turn, including that of Mark in addition to each daughter. Initially, everyone seems to be coping as well as can be expected with Barbara’s death but it doesn’t take long for the delicate surface to begin to give way. Each daughter must wrestle with her own demons, negotiating her own way without her beloved mother for advice and support. Eventually, and with the help of Mark, who plays a crucial role, the family is able to survive their various conflicts and emerge on the dawn side of grief. In the end, the message of this novel is a simple one, if a somewhat clichéd one; that love conquers all, whether it is a mother’s love for her daughters, the love between sisters, or the romantic love that binds two people together forever. Overall, a worth reading.