Rabb, Margo - Cures for Heartbreak

[oyceter]

I've started this entry up several times now, and I still can't think of what to say.

Mia's mother was diagnosed with melanoma and died twelve days after the diagnosis; the book is about how Mia copes in the weeks and months following her mother's death.

This is a book about grief and loss, and in some sections, Mia's emotions are nearly incapacitating, both for her and for me. Rabb is particularly good at capturing Mia's mindset, and the first parts of the book remind me of the Buffy episode "The Body" in their immediacy and their description of the strange, almost-dream logic of the moments.

The book's written in several sections, and months will sometimes pass between section. Gradually, as time passes, Mia learns to heal a little, to find that her life will continue, even with that giant gaping hole, even with her father's current heart troubles.

I particularly like the portrayal of sex and sexuality in this; buymeaclue notes that Mia has the chance to explore it without being punished for it. I also loved how Mia's family is Jewish. It's not the focus of the book, but it's there in the background. I found it was a nice way to show how Jewishness informed her life without defining it, as many problem novels can inadvertently do.

I'm really not sure how to describe this book; rachelmanija compared Rabb to Sarah Dessen, and they share the focus on girls' interiority that I like; buymeaclue calls the book graceful. And it is. It deftly moves among emotions: slow and quiet, immediate and raw, lost and confused, and always deeply moving.

I don't know how to convey the effect it has had, save that I have been silently carrying it with me in my heart for the past few days.

Links:
- buymeaclue's review
- gwyneira's review

Comments

[gwyneira.livejournal.com]

Yes, I liked buymeaclue's describing it as "graceful". The reason my booklog entry is so short is that although I loved the book, I, like you, couldn't really think of what to say. It's been over a month since I read it, and it still feels very immediate.

[oyceter]

Yes! I'd typed up the subject of the post about four or five times before I finally went and posted it, just because I felt so inarticulate.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[oyceter]

^_^. I really liked your review, btw.