This is definitely a book that needs a group discussion when you reach the end. It is written about four women, Greta, who lives in Poland during the Second World War, her daughter Ada, who is sent to America as a child to escape the fate of war. Then Ada has a daughter, Sara, who grows up to be a jazz singer in nightclubs and has a daughter Lulu out of wedlock. Lulu is mainly raised by her grandmother, Ada and told stories of family lore. Sara is not a good mother, emotionally withdrawn and busy with her own life. She leaves her daughter and mother behind and disappears in the middle of the night.
Adrienne Celt weaves all these back stories into the current day plot of Lulu who has just delivered her daughter, Kara. She is married but admits to the reader that the baby was conceived with someone else.
Lulu has been raised on Ada's stories of Greta and a supposed family curse. Lulu is afraid for her daughter. Worried the curse will continue. But as a reader I was never really clear on what the actual curse was. I had plenty of speculation about the curse and Greta's life. I was confused about why the some of the ideas were presented in the book. Music plays a large role in the book, mention of Dvorak's Rusalka opera makes me want to find a parallel with the plot, but that will need to be discussed. The story of Greta and her lost daughters. The story of the young boy who told the false story of the Jews attacking him. These, I think are important plot points that area a ripe for conversation and analysis.
Let me know when you finish this book and we can sit down for a chat, I will bering the coffee.
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