Marriage | Reeder Reads

Back in my University days long, long ago, I remember having Katrina Onstad’s “How Happy To Be” on my non-school reading pile with every intention to read it, but it never happened. When I heard that Katrina Onstad had written a new novel called “Everybody Has Everything” I wanted to make sure I followed through this time and actually read her book. I was drawn into this story after reading the opening sentence,

In the end it took Ana and James only an hour to become parents.

Thus begins the story of Ana, James and two and a half year old Finn. Ana and James had been trying desperately to conceive a child, but had just recently learned that they are unable to have children, so they are thinking about adoption. Spending time with friends that have children is difficult, but they manage to swallow their pride when they’re around their good friends Marcus and Sarah and their little boy Finn. They see the joy and happiness that Finn brings to their lives, that’s why the yearn to have a child so badly.

Tragedy strikes when Marcus, Sarah and Finn are involved in a horrific car accident that claims the life of Marcus, leaves Sarah in a coma and leaves Finn unscathed. With little family connections on Marcus and Sarah’s end, they indicate in their will that Ana and James are to become the legal guardian of their three year old. Even though they both yearned to be parents, this isn’t the way they wanted it to happen. Looking after a two and a half year old that has a relatively stable routine proves to be difficult at first. Ana and James don’t know what song Finn’s referring to when he asks them to sing the “light song” before he goes to bed and they don’t have all the kiddie sized food in their home that they know Sarah always had on hand.

Katrina Onstad marries a perfect combination of humor mixed with tragedy in “Everybody Has Everything“. You’ll read about this couples struggle to figure out how to care for a young boy and weave him into their busy schedules, thus making them test the theory about whether or not they’re really capable of being parents after all. It’s a touching story, that will leave you wanting more right up until the last page!

“Everybody Has Everything” is in stores today.

Here in Toronto, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the sun sets at 8:45pm. What does that mean? Summer is officially here and to kick off the season, I wanted to read an author that’s one of my guilty pleasures and that I categorize into my summer reading list- Elizabeth Berg. She’s written many books, but her newest book, “Once upon a time, there was you“, was probably the best one I’ve read by her in a long time.

When I first started reading it, I thought it had a lot of mystery elements tied into it, but it turned out that wasn’t the case. Let me explain, Elizabeth Berg is fairly well-known for creating stories and characters that are well-developed and deal with real life situations that we all face on a daily basis. This is the story of middle-aged Irene, her ex husband John and their daughter Sadie. Sadie is the light in both of their eyes, at eighteen years old, she’s mature, polite and above all she continues to make them both proud everyday with all her accomplishments. That’s why they are both are shocked when Sadie goes off the path of righteousness and makes a decision to do something so drastic and unlike her that it pulls both Irene and John closer together.

Irene and John don’t communicate effectively for many reasons, so when they are forced to find common ground and be rational, it becomes quite the feat. In their marriage, there were a lot of pitfalls and the story actually begins at their wedding, where both of them are thinking of bailing because they know in their heart of hearts that they aren’t a good fit. Over the years, their marriage begins to crumble, the lowest of lows is that they can’t even say the words ‘I love you’ to one another. Needless to say, their views and opinions about the institution of marriage are tainted.

At the core of this novel is the word love and what that word means and how it’s distributed to one another. It’s a touching story that forces old feelings to be reevaluated and redetermined. I throughly enjoyed it and would have loved reading it on a beach with a cocktail nearby, instead of having to read it on transportation. Oh well, in soon time…. in soon time.

What are books you have set aside for your summer reading?

Reeder Reads

Tag Archives: Marriage

Review: Everybody Has Everything – Katrina Onstad

Once Upon a Time, There was You – Elizabeth Berg

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