BOOKISH FRIDAY: “A GOOD ENOUGH MOTHER”

Welcome to another Bookish Friday, in which I  share excerpts from books…and connect with other bloggers, who do the same.

Let’s begin the celebration by sharing Book Beginnings, hosted by Rose City Reader; and let’s showcase The Friday 56 with Freda’s Voice.

To join in, just grab a book and share the opening lines…along with any thoughts you wish to give us; then turn to page 56 and excerpt anything on the page.

Then give us the title of the book, so others can add it to their lists!

What a great way to spend a Friday!

Today’s feature:  A Good Enough Mother, by Bev Thomas.

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Beginning:  On paper, Dan Griffin was nothing out of the ordinary.  He was anxious, he was urgent, he was like any other patient we see at the Trauma Unit.  “Unremarkable” was how I described him to the police.  When they looked for answers in those early therapy sessions, they read about the bruise on his face, the terror in his voice, and the flashbacks that were so visceral they took his breath away, but there was nothing to hint at his capacity for violence.

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Friday 56:  I smiled.  “That sounds very interesting,” I said tightly.  “The thing is—while books can be really helpful, I’m his mother.  And, well, you really don’t know what it’s like until you’ve had your own child.”

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Synopsis:  Ruth Hartland is a psychotherapist with years of experience. But professional skill is no guard against private grief. The mother of grown twins, she is haunted by the fact that her beautiful, difficult, fragile son Tom, a boy who never “fit in,” disappeared a year and a half earlier. She cannot give up hope of finding him, but feels she is living a kind of half-life, waiting for him to return.

Enter a new patient, Dan–unstable and traumatized–who looks exactly like her missing son. She is determined to help him, but soon, her own complicated feelings, about how she has failed her own boy, cloud her professional judgement. And before long, the unthinkable becomes a shattering reality….

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I’m intrigued.  What do you think?

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