Sarah's Library

I won this book in a GR giveaway.  This has not impacted on my ability to review it honestly and critically.

3/1 - I'm finding this quite compelling, but I really don't like the main character Odette, or indeed any of the characters.  I find most of her choices incomprehenisble and that they go against not only what I would do if I was in those situations, but what I believe in.  She seems to make the same mistakes over and over up until the point where she goes off the rails a bit and leaves her husband of many years.  I know that she is a woman of a different era, but not that different, the same era as my parents.  There are a few editing issues that have been over looked - missing punctuation, unnecessary words, partly nonsensical sentences, that kind of thing - it's not too distracting from the reading but it is noticeable.  To be continued...

4/1 - After finishing this last night I had a look at what the author says about herself on her profile page and now I am of the opinion that this is a semi, if not fully, autobiographical story.  I am an absolute atheist and I found Odette's constant reliance on a revolving bookshelf of quasi-religious self-help books foolish.  Why does she need a book by a swami to tell her what to do or how to think?  That seems just as much of an addiction as Odette's admitted addiction to prostitution.  I do not like the idea of a reliance on a higher power that may or may not do what you need it to do, may not answer your prayers no matter how hard you pray.  How do you deal with the higher power not answering your prayers?  In my opinion it's easier not to believe in something like that than to have total faith and rely on it only to have your prayers ignored when you need them answered the most.