Book Review

To Be Sung Underwater by Tom McNeal

I have been choosing most of my books lately by stuff I see on Pintrest.... Covers draw me in, titles draw me in.  I am trying to balance YA lit, fiction and classic literature.  I am failing a little in the classic lit.   Maybe if I did young adult classic lit I could ease back into it.  Some of my favorite books of all time are the classics. 

This book would fall under the genre modern fiction.  It is essentially a love story, but not in the traditional sense.  It is divided into three sections.  During the first section the story flip flops between modern day and the past.  The whole time I kept asking myself, "Where are they going with this?"  It does become clear by the end but it takes about a third of the book to get there.

The story depicts the life of Judith  ranging from a young girl to an adult woman with a child of her own.  There are parts of the story that I love her character.  She is strong and confident and sure of herself.  Then there are parts of the story that I wonder if she is on the verge on completely loosing it.  It is during these parts that I don't like her character.  But I think that is unfair.  Because as a woman I think we all go through spurts of both strength and weakness.  I think that Judith was a better person because of her choices in the end.   Yet these choices at the time seem crazy and irrational.  And while I would never condone that type of behavior I think for her is was almost necessary.  She was losing herself in her current situation.  Midlife crisis...maybe 

This novel brings up the question of returning to your first love.   One tries unsuccessfully to forget it and the other can never forget.  First love is not always that tragic but it does teach us a lot.

I would recommend this book... it is a quick light read.  It will make you think and feel.  It is not a literary masterpiece but I liked it all the same.