Author: Jenny Downham
What it’s about (in 75 words or fewer): Katie is a seventeen-year-old struggling to accept her sexuality. Caroline is an uptight, divorced single mother doing her best with her two children. Mary suffers from Alzheimer's and reappears after not having talked to her daughter Caroline in years. While caring for Mary, Katie learns to accept herself, and Caroline comes to terms with her difficult childhood. And Mary struggles to remember the mysterious "blue blanks" of her past, memories bittersweet for her to recall.
What I think: I read an article from The Guardian talking about how this book "presents the archetypal trio of maiden, mother, and crone in a very modern setting" and I liked that description so much I decided to write the review in the voices of the maiden, mother, and crone as they are in Unbecoming.
The maiden, Katie: I promise I did not force myself on Esme--our kiss was a mutual decision. But now all of my friends are avoiding me. It's tough in my last year of school to have no one to talk to. At least with Mary around, I have some company. But she makes Mum so angry. What could have happened in the past to make Mum so angry at Mary? And why can't she forgive her and move on? Our family is so lonely. Shouldn't we reach out to the family we have left? Mum is so demanding to live with. I can't bear to disappoint her, but I can't help it! She freaks out when everything is not perfect! I can't wait to finish school and move away.
The mother, Caroline: I can't believe Mary had my name on her emergency medical bracelet! The woman who abandoned me when I was born, let her older sister adopt me, and then swept into my life when I was nine and ruined my whole family. And now I'm older, my husband has left me, my daughter is sullen and angry, and my special-needs son adds to the stress. In spite of everything, I have done everything I can to be the perfect mother. Mary is not going to waltz back into my life and take that away from me.
The crone, Mary: I can't seem to remember anything anymore, but I do enjoy this lovely young girl who keeps taking care of me. She reminds me of my daughter, Caroline. I wanted the very best for Caroline, so I let my older sister, Pat, raise her. But Pat did not keep her promise to let me visit, and Caroline thought I'd abandoned her. I tried hard to move on and even become an actress in London, but my heart was always with my daughter. Now Caroline has grown up and has a daughter of her own. I wish I could remember all of the blanks in my memory, even though I know they will cause me pain.
Unbecoming reads like adult fiction or chick-lit. It was interesting to read how Mary's past and circumstances beyond their control shaped Mary and Caroline's relationship (poor Caroline suffered the most). I think it's hard to think of your parents and grandparents as young people, especially when you are seventeen), and learning Mary's past helped Katie and Caroline repair their tumultuous relationship.
My final takeaway (in 75 words or fewer): Unbecoming is a story of strong but flawed female characters and is worth reading if you enjoy chick lit and/or stories about the past and how things have changed for women (and how they have stayed the same in some ways).
My favorite quotes/passages:
- "Didn't you always tell me it took courage for people to be themselves?" (hardback edition, pg. 137).
- "My head was entirely empty and I looked at you and saw your disappointment and knew I wasn't the plucky, extrovert daughter you wanted me to be" (pg. 226).
- "Katie felt her throat clench. That was the trouble with sympathy and kindness--they pulled your defenses open and exposed you" (pg. 329).
- "'Did you know,' Simona said, 'that some bloke in America brought a house and painted it in the colors of the rainbow just to p*** off the preacher from the fundamentalist church opposite?'" (pg. 359).
Other reviews: The YA Kitten and School Library Journal.
This book is available in the Greensboro Public Library.
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