Good Harbor, Entry 2

So far, this book is “okay”. It is not the best book I have ever read, but it is tolerable. Right now, I am exactly halfway through it (well, technically like two pages away from being exactly halfway, but close enough). I am still a little confused about the plot. It just seems to me like two women who are trying to find meaning in their lives, but there’s not really a climax. We talked in the beginning of the reading project about plot structure, and based on what I have read so far, this book is practically just a flat line. Well, maybe with a slight positive slope,

The plot structure would be similar to a graph of this line.

but not much. Now, I’m not saying that it’s a bad book, it’s just not exciting. I have found that this author has focused too much on describing the details of the characters and places, but not enough time having action happen. The most “exciting” part so far of the book is when the main characters’ two separate stories meet and they become friends. I like how the book changes point of view so you can see what each character is thinking, such as about one another and about the world. The main characters are Joyce, a middle-aged author with a tween daughter who enjoys soccer and her friends and Joyce feels as though she and her husband’s relationship is dying, and Kathleen, an old lady who is the librarian of a children’s school library and is diagnosed with breast cancer that killed her sister too. As you can see, these two women’s lives do not really connect to my life, like I can’t relate very well since I am not an old lady or a middle-aged women, so maybe that is why the book is only “okay” to me and not really good! One thing that I do connect to is that both women are Jewish and go to synagogue. In fact, that’s where they met! I can connect to the traditions and prayers and meetings, etc., that are described in the synagogue because they are the same as my traditions. Additionally, I get the references to parts of the service that are mentioned, etc. For example, on page 61, the author talks about the rabbi singing. She writes, “Her unaccompanied voice...delivered a tune familiar from the boys’ years in Sunday school. ‘Shalom Aleichem,’ she sang. After one stanza, the rabbi waved for the congregation to join in” (61). There are many other references like this throughout the book (references to Jewish traditions). I like that because it helps me to better connect to this book despite the fact that the two main characters are very different from me and difficult for me to connect with. Hopefully, I can continue to feel this connection throughout the book, and hopefully some “action” will happen. This is an extreme prediction, but maybe the woman with cancer will die and the other woman will realize how good friends they have became? Or maybe on her deathbed, the cancer woman will realize how meaningful her life actually was and how she was close friends to the other woman? Whatever happens, I can’t wait to find out, and I hope it is exciting!!