“A contemporary view of our mores and a family in peril”“In Leah’s Wake” was written by Terri Giuliano Long; a first novel for Ms. Long and one she self published. Ms. Long was born in Dover Delaware in 1957 and lectures at Boston College where she teaches creative and non-fiction writing.The novel by Ms. Long is of the fictional literature genre in the context of existentialism. The prose style is anonymous scene narration and character dialog. The writing is straight forward; a non-complex structure that should be well accepted by a wide audience. A note for e-reader users that the electronic edition of the novel contains some grammatical errors, however, they are obvious and do not detract substantially from the reading experience. The majority of the language in the story is benign; however, there are instances of earthy vernacular and a couple of mild sexual encounters. The novel would be appropriate for “coming of age” teenagers.The story in main is about the family of Will and Zoe Tyler, their two daughters, eleven year old Justine and sixteen year old Leah, the family dog “Dog “and the home and life they share in the suburbs of Boston. The family is portrayed as typical upper middle class having a nice home on a quiet cul-de-sac. The girls are engrossed in school activities and Leah is a star soccer player for her high school, she is also adored by her younger sister. Leah’s soccer prowess has put her on track for a college scholarship, one her father hopes will land her in Harvard. Will is a salesman for a construction company and travels a lot for his job. He currently has to spend a couple weeks a month on the west coast. Will “hated traveling, hated flying, [and] hated living out of a suitcase”. Zoe was in the process of transitioning from a fulltime job at a counseling center to operating her own motivational seminars; “Success skills for women on the move”. The story picks up with Leah drinking vodka and OJ with her boyfriend twenty year old Todd Corbett who Leah had met at a party just before school started. Todd had been working the last two years as a “roadie” for a heavy metal band and had just returned home. From here we witness the gradual unraveling of the lives of the Tyler family as Leah becomes more and more involved with Todd, drugs and alcohol. As despair deepens for Will and Zoe over their inability to communicate or understand their daughter Leah, they find their marriage in jeopardy. The trauma is also affecting younger daughter Justine who sees herself as ignored and confused, unable to understand the things that are happening to her and her family and to the changes in Leah the sister she so adores. The reader is captured in the saga as a witness to the family’s darkest moments in its downward spiral of despair; clinging desperately to the hope that somehow redemption will be realized in the outcome.I quite liked this novel. It was well written, the character development was generally good and the story was captivating. There was a strong affinity for the lives of the characters as Ms. Long created them, a credit to her observation of the personalities in her midst. The story’s theme was pertinent to the discourse, fears and insecurities experienced by affected families today. On counterpoint, I thought that the male character development in the story was weakened somewhat by Ms. Long’s female perspective - that the males seemed to be driven more emotionally than logically. In this regard I had a great deal of trouble with the character of the police officer Jerry Johnson who I thought was uncharacteristically depicted. Further to this point, I was somewhat disappointed that while Leah was never viewed as unsalvageable, Todd was written off from the beginning. Instead of the pointless relationship between Zoe and Jerry Johnson, I felt it would have been a particularly noble feature in the story to have had Jerry Johnson rescue Todd in consideration of his own rescue by a Judge when Jerry was young. Somehow that aspect of Jerry’s life seemed otherwise lost in the story.This novel should be enjoyed by all who are interested in existentialism, as it applies to our moral stance in society.Overall I recommend this novel be added to your reading list. I'm sorry but I didn't like it at all. It was a book club choice, not mine, a story of a dysfunctional teenager and the effects of her fall from grace on the family. I wanted to feel some connection with just one of them but I couldn't. I found myself wanting to skip pages to see if anything happened but nothing really did, it was just one long very miserable journey. I'm sure -sadly - that life is like that for some families and maybe some teenagers will identify with Leah and/or Justine but I couldn't even get in the head of the mother. EG first scene where Leah is very late home - after a lot of worrying by both parents - the mother goes to bed and is quickly snoring. She has no idea where her daughter is and she can fall asleep? I don't care that her husband is waiting - that set the tone for me for the story - I didn't believe it.Also the language felt almost like a diary in the way it was written, odd mix of tenses and POVs and I found it hard going. I can see this book has won prizes, had great plaudits but it wasn't one I got on with. Just not my sort of book.
What do You think about In Leah's Wake (2011)?
Amazing to see how one person can rock a family....unfortunately you know it could be true
—BeckyDear
Didn't finish it-too depressing! It was written well just not my cup of tea.
—Saracatalan
This was a good book. Emotionally draining on you though.
—taufiq
Interesting story. Slow n not well written.
—emi_lou
Thought it was lame and not well written.
—Patrick
