Oh, this is hard. First of all, I went into this book biased by Wasted. When someone's autobiography is that uncomfortable, and I come out the end kind of not liking her a whole lot, but just maybe, still a bit fascinated, that's a tough place to be in when reading a debut novel. I'm deeply ambivalent about Marya Hornbacher, and I'm equally deeply ambivalent about The Center of Winter.I'm a total sucker for precocious kids in tough situations. And I did love the children, the ultra-precocious six-year-old girl and the bipolar 12-year-old boy (real, genuine bipolar disorder with severe depression and psychotic mania, not the "the ADHD meds didn't seem to help" kid-bipolar that was so popular a few years ago). She also wrote some beautiful things about not just the look, but the feel of a tiny town in Northern Minnesota both in the endless, dark blue-grey winters and in the surprisingly sweltering summers.The adult characters were of the so-deeply-flawed-they're-nearly-impossible-to-like variety. I understand how a thoroughly dislikeable character can still be fascinating, but I often have a hard time with books without someone to feel for, to cheer for.And then there were the sentences where she overshot 'the beauty of a bleak landscape' to end up with things like "...and that's how we ended up riding our bikes down Highway 20 in the purple dusk."A deeply flawed novel about deeply flawed characters by a deeply flawed author. And when her second autobiography is available in a month or two, I'm sure I'll read that too.
This book has been near and dear to my heart. I am unhappy to have finished it. It both warms you and breaks your heart. Davey and Kate are six yrs old and the best of friends. Esau is Kate's twelve yr old brother who seems to have Bipolar Disorder. He has his "darks" and is hospitalized, institutionalized and eventually brought home and stabilizes. His mother says he has the "sick-sads" that he quite possibly inherited from his father who eventually kills himself. Kate and Davey are inseparable-there is not one without the other. Kate loves her brother more than she'd like to admit. Their sweet unspoken understandings of one another will make you smile with tears. This is the saddest and sweetest book I have ever read. In this book, "The Center For Winter" you will find yourself wanting so much to wrap the people in your arms and hold them with understanding. You will want so much to save them, to tell them you know. Marya Hornbacher is not alien to these sorts of feelings. She will take you there and you will know. Last night while reading I forgot where I was. I sat my book down after a chapter and looked to the clock which read 11:43pm. and said to myself, "Gosh, forgot where I was, what time it was..." I know that I will not want to leave this book and will place it lovingly on a shelf where I will remember and return to it years later.
What do You think about The Center Of Winter (2006)?
If you read Marya Horbacher, don't expect it to be all sunshine and roses. I adore her writing. She's a person who has experienced a lot of pain in her life through her battles with eating disorders, addiction, and mental illness. When she writes about these subjects, it comes from a place of true personal understanding and that brings so much more reality to her words.The other two books of hers I have read are Wasted and Madness. Both are excellent memoirs. This is her first venture into fiction and I do hope she writes more. The book is written from three different viewpoints. Kate, the youngest daughter narrates the story of her past from her adult perspective. Esau, her brother who suffers from mental illness narrates it from his childhood perspective. I enjoyed the Esau parts the best. Marya writes mental illness so well. The final character is Claire, their mother and widow after her husband commits suicide. Her part of the story is about moving on and finding new love.This book touches on a lot of sad subjects: suicide, grief, alcoholism, mental illness, infidelity, death and loss. It is hauntingly beautiful and ends on a positive note. I was sad to see it end. It will get a re-read from me in the future.
—Kate Pittman
I'm not sure how much I really liked this book. I couldn't put it down, but I ended it feeling ambivalent. I think my expectations may have been unrealistically high since I liked Hornbacher's memoir so much. This book was interesting, and sometimes it was incredible, but it was also uncomfortably bleak at some points, and the writing was sometimes awkward and thick (there's no need for someone to shriek on every page) and a few of the characters got on my nerves. Despite those complaints, still a worthwhile read, definitely.
—Joanie
Not a happy book and often the story meanders too much ( for example in the details of Esau's battle with schizophrenia) . There was a point midway where I nearly decided to set it aside as it seemed to be getting ponderous, but I persevered and enjoyed getting to meet Frank - perhaps the best portrayed character of them all. The two women seemed very two dimensional to me, and apart from their incessant drinking and smoking seemed to lack any distinguishing feature, I would have liked more insight into the uneasy marital relationship Kate's mother had as her feelings came across as quite ambivalent.
—Ann Chappe
