Bless me, Father, for I have procrastinated. As I have confessed before, sometimes a book will sit on my shelf long enough to start asking for the car keys before I get to it. This novel shows a publication date of 2001, but actually takes place in 1990, and so it has a rather antique feel to it, with people listening to cassettes and not having cell phones or caller ID, and fetching their dinner by hunting mastodons. Okay, I made that last bit up. That said, this is still a really enjoyable read.The story concerns Rose, a woman in her late fifties and married to the very steady Ned, who asks her every morning "So what's on your agenda today?", as if one day differed very much from any other. The one day in Rose and Ned's life that was shockingly, horribly different was the day five years before, when their teenage son and only child died in a road accident. Ned is waiting for his Rosie to come back; Rose doesn't really see anything to come back to.Enter Opal Gates, a twenty year old single mother of a five year old son, a believer in signs, a doll maker and a southerner, who moves in next door to Rose and Ned on their street in Normal, Massachusetts. Opal, whose name used to be Tammy Raylee Gates before she legally changed it, threw a die and when it landed on three, she decided to drive three tanks of gas away from her home of New Zion, North Carolina, and stop there. She was aiming to get away from her boring ex-jock boyfriend (the father of Zach, her son) and also from her overbearing, hyper-critical mother Melva, who apparently never made a mistake in her life. Step aside Jesus, here's a *really* perfect person, and she's not shy about hammering her very different daughter over the head with that fact. Oh I love it when I can identify!At first, Rose thinks that Opal is basically trailer trash, and is horrified at Opal's casual attitude toward her son's little mishaps, saying, "Boys bounce." Rose knows that, sometimes, they don't. Circumstances, however, will bring these two women together (just like in a novel!) and they will find that they need each other's help and kindness to get through when trouble comes to both their doorsteps in the form of a heart attack suffered by Ned and a custody suit brought by Zach's father, backed by--you guessed it--Melva. I found myself caring a lot for both of these very believable, flawed, likeable women, as well as Ned. I was amused by how well this woman author depicted auto mechanic Ned and the way he thinks. I recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a good human story.
"Entering Normal" is the story of two women and the intersection of their lives in small-town New England. The characters are somewhat stereotypical. Rose Nelson is a middle-aged Yankee closed off to the world after the death of her son. Southerner Opal Gates is on the lam from her family and son's father, gushing "Shugah" endearments. Opal seems to run her life by signs, whether a roll of a die or fruit sticker on the kitchen cabinets. They collide in Normal, MA, as reluctant neighbors, and for Rose, even more reluctant friends. The plot is predictable-Opal falls for the town bad boy, Rose faces her son's death and the ultimate collision course of the two women. With the exception of some twists, the outcome is fairly sanguine."Entering Normal"is a quick, light read, not unpleasant, just a little too easy to figure out.
What do You think about Entering Normal (2002)?
I enjoyed this book because, as flawed as the two main characters were, I could relate to both of them. As a once-20-yr-old mother, who made her own share of mistakes because of immaturity, I could relate to Opal. As a middle-aged woman who lost a teenage child, I could relate to Rose and the fact that her grief was a constant part of her life. Yet both these characters carried those traits to extremes that, thank God, I did not.The book is well written. There are a couple of surprising twists thrown into what would otherwise be just a "situation" rather than a plot. Male readers would probably hate it this boo, but I personally found it a very good read.
—Lois Duncan
4 STARS"In Anne D. LeClaire's Entering Normal, two women are bound by the shared trials of motherhood: birth, hope, separation, and grief. Though Rose Nelson is an older woman still mourning her son, who died five years ago, and Opal Gates is a young single mother scrabbling to raise her 5-year-old son, the two women begin to cleave together.Both move through their worlds in a dreamlike trance, only surfacing above their own self-absorption when confronted by the violence of life: infidelity, passion, jealousy, and death. Though emotionally clueless men bumble around Rose and Opal, they are never able to pierce through these women's barriers. Rose and Opal are too convinced of their own needs--Opal believes she needs no one, while Rose focuses only on her dead son. As the two begin to find each other, the reader awaits the moments of growth that allow them to see beyond themselves." (From Amazon)I picked this novel up for $2 not thinking anything of it and was pleasantly surprised how good it was. A funny warm novel.
—Kris - My Novelesque Life
This was a pick up while at the beach with my family. Well written with characters I easily saw keeping company in the same neighborhood as my granny. The names of the two mothers (Opal and Rose) and the associations one can have to those words added to the expansion of the characters. Alternating 1st person perspective between these two women created a lovely balance as the story built up to the pivotal (and thus transformitive) crisis point. And I am always down with the belief in signs. Good enough read, though not my usual content.
—Jnfr Fuller
