The Diary

June 29, 2009
As their mother lies dying in a nursing home, two sisters find her diary—and a mother they never knew. Written shortly before their parents' marriage, the diary details their mother's romance with another man, and the sisters are moved to discover the depth of their mother's heartache. Slipping between a nostalgic past and the present, the story is suspenseful and surprising, and the versatile Susan Ericksen gives the characters the life, color and personality they deserve, effortlessly and faithfully conveying the middle-class, Midwestern setting. A Vanguard hardcover.

March 23, 2009
Verdict: A somewhat slow starter for such a brief book, this sedate tear-jerker packs a punch at the end. Don't think you've figured it all out, either. Big marketing push, going for the Mother's Day angle. Background: With their father dead and their mother in a nursing home, middle-aged Sarah and Emily clean out their parents' house, only to stumble upon the diary their mother, Elizabeth, kept back in 1951, in which she writes about being in love with another man. More secrets are revealed as the sisters read the thoughts and feelings of a woman they now discover they never really knew. The 1951 time period gives the story a restrained feel, and Goudge falls back on familiar stereotypes: the good girl living at home, the athlete boyfriend loved and admired by all, the puritanical mother overly concerned with public opinion, and the rebel bad-boy yearning after the town beauty.-Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal

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