OF LOVE AND LIFE

A woman struggles to remain true to herself despite being trapped in the wrong marriage.

MacLean’s novel opens in 1976 as a pregnant Sarah Maddison prepares for her wedding to Benjamin Patterson. Benjamin is not the baby’s father, but he’s so enamored with Sarah that he’s agreed to raise the child as his own. The infant’s father, Kevan McElroy, disappeared shortly before Sarah met Benjamin. Sarah is hoping that she can learn to love Benjamin as much as she did Kevan. But shortly after they wed, Benjamin begins implementing changes to Sarah’s life that she hadn’t anticipated. During their engagement, she helped run his family’s restaurant, but suddenly he’s talking about buying a house where Sarah can spend her days as a homemaker. Though Sarah would prefer to continue working outside the home, she is persuaded by Benjamin to do his bidding. After the baby is born, Sarah fills her days by painting, but Benjamin doesn’t take her art seriously, creating another point of contention. Meanwhile, he’s been spending more time at work and getting suspiciously close to a female employee. As the years roll by, Sarah grows increasingly lonely and discontent in her life, and she continues to pine for Kevan, the one man she ever truly loved. It’s questionable whether she will ever find joy unless she makes a major change. Told in the third person, the story follows Sarah as she confronts the complicated nature of the relationships in her life as well as multiple betrayals, big and small, by people she trusts. The author delves deeply into many complex topics with insight and grace, exploring concepts such as self-doubt, companionship, determination, and grief for a lost love. In this plot-driven tale, the story’s pacing detracts somewhat from the narrative, as the novel jumps quickly through time, first by months and then years, with minimal explanation about what has occurred during the glossed-over periods. Similarly, the tale ends so abruptly that readers may find themselves searching for missing pages, as several major plotlines remain unresolved. Even so, the story’s primary question—how to make the best of a difficult situation—is sufficiently central throughout the narrative to keep the book engrossing.

A quiet, engaging tale about second chances and the decision to move forward despite disappointments.