Saturday, March 12, 2016

Father Melancholy's Daughter

Way back when I was a young thing in grad school, I read Gail Godwin's novel "Father Melancholy's Daughter" for the first time. I really enjoyed it - there is nothing as gripping as a book that is all about interesting characters and how they develop, in my opinion, that is. I thought, "Wow, I've found a fabulous new (to me) author! I've got to read all of her other books!" Well, I did read five more, and they ranged from just okay to good, but none of the others I tried were anywhere near great. I include that info so that you don't assume that I'm highly recommending everything she's written and go read one of the other books and then think I've got poor taste in literature.

But, back to the one exceptional book of the lot. What I can say without giving anything away that you won't learn in the first few pages of the book is it's a coming of age book, and the title character is the daughter of an often-melancholy Episcopal priest, and her mother has recently departed the scene. You follow her from age six to age 22, although more accurately, you learn about her at age six and at age 22, and not much between.

For fans of books in which the plot involves the inner workings of minds and dialogue, try it, you'll like it!

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