Sunday, August 14, 2011

The Year Everything Changed-Georgia Bockoven

The Year Everything Changed
Georgia Bockoven
Morrow, Aug 23 2011, $14.99
ISBN: 9780062069320

In March 2000, attorney Lucy Hargreaves sends letters to four women. In the note, she says she represents Jessie Patrick Reed, who claims to be their biological father that none of them ever met or new existed. He is dying and would like to meet them in his home in Sacramento.

Ginger Reynolds and Marc Osborne are divorcing but he will not leave until their two children understand he is not leaving them, but is stunned to learn her loving caring parents adopted her. Twentyish filmmaker Christina Alvarado slightly remembers him but never understood why he left her; her mate Randy wants her to go in case Jessie is rich so they can fund a project in Los Angeles. Rachel Nolan learns her husband Jeff is having an affair with Sandy on the same day she finds out that a Jessie Reed claims to be her father. Elizabeth Walker loves her husband Sam, her younger sister Stephanie and her mom Denise, but though years have passed she never understood why her dad Jessie deserted her; now he wants to see her but she does not want to see him though she wants to confront him. Now four stepsisters meet for the first time when they visit their dying biological dad.

This is a discerning extended family drama that focuses on how much society changes over the decades as some taboos become acceptable and others not. This book is character driven by the four stepsisters; each having widely different personalities, family issues and diverse reasons for wanting to know why he left them. The support cast especially Lucy and Jessie enhances an epic thought provoking look at how societal customs change over time.

Harriet Klausner

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