The Wide Circumference of Love by Marita GoldenMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is a beautiful title. And the book cover is gorgeous. Perhaps it set me up to expect more than I should have. It is a story about Alzheimer's and the effect on different members of the family, especially the matriarch and wife who must watch her beloved slowly disappear and commit him to a home, where he finds himself thinking he is married to someone else. Lots of different "loves" are explored in this novel: loves that need forgiveness and understanding, loves that need time and patience, loves that discover new ways of connecting, old loves, new loves, etc. However, the narrative did not work for me. Not only were there jumps in time, but jumps in narrators and perspectives. Some storylines started and never really resolved themselves (the daughter). Other storylines hinted at some deep realizations but were not fully expressed (the son). I think this might have been much better had it been written in the trendy linked short-story format. That way each perspective could be in a tidy bundle rather than constantly skipping tracks. In my opinion, We Are Not Ourselves by Matthew Thomas is a better choice to read about this subject.
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