Everything I Never Told You

Everything I Never Told You

Adult fiction
"Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet. 1977, six thirty
in the morning, no one knows anything but this innocuous fact: Lydia
is late for breakfast. As always, next to her cereal bowl, her mother
has placed a sharpened pencil and Lydia's physics homework, six
problems flagged with small ticks..."
Let's put it this way. Lydia is not going to redo the physics
homework. As her absence draws on, the police are contacted.
Eventually her body is found when the police drag the lake.
Lydia has been the sun around which her parents have revolved.
Her white mother, Marilyn, who had harbored ambitions to become a
doctor until becoming unexpectedly pregnant for a third time, was
grooming her to go where she couldn't. All quality time and gifts
were science related. Her father, James, had gone through his
precollege years socially ostracized as the only Oriental student.
College hadn't improved matters much. He'd been sure that Lydia, with
her mixed appearance, could fit in and be popular in a way he never
could. Older brother, Nath, and little sister, Hannah, were
relatively neglected.
With Lydia dead, the family implodes. James pursues an ill
advised affair with his graduate assistant. Marilyn becomes obsessed
with discovering who killed her brilliant daughter. Will the
remaining family members ever be able to come together again--
especially where Nath, eager to leave home and start his real life, is
about to start his freshperson year at Harvard?
Read the book and see. It's impossible to put down once you get
caught up in the plot. Race issues tie in with the deep secrets of a
family to create a complex and fascinating narrative.
One line really struck me. In a flashback Marilyn has just left
the house of her deceased mother, a home economics teacher who
idolized everything Betty Crocker and, in a cruel twist of fate, was
forced to single parent in a manless house. She had promised herself,
"I will never end up like that." Years ago when the kids were grown
and I was having no luck finding a decent job the family started
suggesting retail. I vividly recall accompanying my partner to
WalMart (where I'd never go on my own), watching the overworked,
underpaid associates, and declaring to myself, "I will never end up
like that!". That's partly what grad school means to me.
On a purrrsonal note, my turkey and all the fixings dinner came out
purrrfect. Joey highly approved my work.
A great big shout out goes out to my turkey loving feline friend.
jules hathaway


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