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Mary’s lifelong yearnings are to have a best friend and to understand why her mother let her be sent away. Living with a new mother who is distant and cold and a philandering father of prominent social stature who buries himself in the bottle, Mary’s bears her longings alone, unable to trust herself or others. Paul Freeman, a gentle, hardworking man gently guides and encourages her, both in their marriage and in the difficult relationship with her adoptive parents. But it isn’t until Mary opens her heart to Sally, a new acquaintance at the tennis club, that Mary really begins her journey to learning who she is.
The settings are evocative with detail and voice that put the reader in the wilds of Ireland, an American home where love is not expressed, a parochial school classroom, a farm in Indiana, and Mary’s own tortured heart. The prose is achingly lovely, and while the ending is satisfying and complete, there were times I wanted to know more about Sally, the friend, who gives unselfishly of her time and her presence to travel Mary’s road with her. In Sally, Mary does find the friend she’s always wanted and through Sally’s insistence, a trip to Ireland to unravel her past.
Friendship. The unseen grace of God. Deliverance. And hope.
An excellent read that I will be dwelling on for a long time.
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