Niagara by Mary WoronovMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
I finished this and knew two things. First, I wanted a glass of wine & second, I needed to think about this book for a bit. I'm still thinking.
The writing is so well done that you're lured, coaxed & seduced into the story the narrator is telling. But the thing about Molly (or Mei Li) is that she's so self-destructive, self-involved & perpetually drunk that you realize fairly quickly that you can't really go by her if you're looking for the truth. And that's when things really get interesting. I refuse to give any of the major plot points away & at 215 pages, it's pretty densely & quickly told (the second half of this book is a burning page turner & the ending left me angry that I didn't get another page & a half at the very least!) but it's worth it. I can't decide when Molly's life took the jump into the cavern or what the catalyst was, maybe it's the combination of the whole Carson clan but I do know that I was riveted to the story. The relationship she has with her mother is particularly well drawn & heartbreaking. The relationship with her father is also well portrayed as unfinished & remote. I sort of never stopped rooting for Bobby. And Kenny is still in many ways an unanswered puzzle. Molly ran me through just about every emotion but in the end, I wanted her to be okay to find herself & if she couldn't be wholly at peace, then I wanted her to be less destructive. I'm still thinking about which way she really went in the end & I suspect I will be for a long time to come.
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