I have a goal of reading 50 books this year. I'm at 11. But that's why I pushed to finish this book so I can move on to other books. And here's what I have to say:
**SPOILERS!!!**
I'd like to start off with the end. What was with that? It felt like a total cliff hanger. Nothing seemed to be resolved at all, except that she cut down the tree enough for her mother in law to see the water. We don't know if she stays married to her husband, how messed up her kids end up being, if she ever goes back to Italy etc etc.
That being said, I can start on the little things:
Her kids. One would think, that after experiencing your parents' divorce at a young age and seeing your entire family ripped apart because of it, an adult with a working brain would think "Hey, I don't want my kids to have to go through that." One might also think that if a man wanted to marry you only for a green card, and the two of you don't even bother to live together, that you probably shouldn't have kids in the first place. I can understand a woman's desire to want babies. I want babies. But I'm smart enough to know that I have to wait until I have my life on a more stable ground than it is now. Living apart from a husband who only wants to stay in the country doesn't count, at least in my mind, as stable ground.
So this makes me think: is she just selfish? Did she just want a kid so bad she didn't care with who(whom? I'm never sure about this), or how messed up the kids might be in the future? Or does Gabrielle just have bad judgement? I don't know.
I was less interested in the second half of the book than I was in the first. The first part was a struggle for her. I understood why she was struggling. But then, it's like her life was a struggle, but it was a struggle she could have avoided, for which I don't feel bad for her at all. I just can't muster up feeling bad for people who put themselves in a situation that will most likely end up bad. It might be mean, but its the truth.
Something I would have liked to seen be explored more was the revelation she had everyone in Michele's family was afraid of change, except for the mother in law (whose name escapes me at the moment), even though everyone said it was her that didn't want the change. I wanted more about that. Family dynamics are so interesting to me.
The issue with the party struck me as annoying as well. She wanted to have one, but her "husband" said no. And no again. Why didn't she ask someone else? And besides, I'm sure she was making enough money for herself that she could go out and buy the stuff for the party and just say "I'm doing this." Was she so afraid of losing a family she barely had, rather than stand up for herself and do what she wants? It is such a change from the younger Gabrielle who lied about her age to work.
I'm trying to come up with something I enjoyed about the second part of the book, and I'm struggling a little bit. Maybe my annoyance with adult Gabrielle is overpowering. Maybe if I come up with something at a later date, I will write about it. But don't hold your breath.
