THE BOOK THAT MATTERS MOST (Ann Hood)

I wouldn't say that The Book That Matters Most would qualify as a life-changing novel, but it certainly is one that will stay in your mind for days after you finish reading it.  It's the kind of novel that you wish were longer.

Ava Tucker's 25-year marriage ends when her husband reconnects with Delia, an old girlfriend, now a yarn bomber.  With both of her children living overseas, Ava is desperate for companionship, so when a spot opens up in her librarian friend's book club, Ava is thrilled to join.  Although she doesn't seem particularly interested in actually reading the books at first, she is getting out and meeting new people, being a part of something.  Each year the book club chooses a theme and this year each of the members is asked to choose for discussion the book that has mattered most in their lives, made a significant difference or changed their way of thinking, helped them deal with a situation. Most in the group make expected choices like The Great Gatsby, To Kill a  Mockingbird, or Pride and Prejudice.  Ava chooses an obscure book that helped her to cope with the death of her younger sister years ago and to deal with the subsequent suicide of her mother.  She also promises the group that she has contacted the author and that she has agreed to meet with the group.

As a young girl, Ava witnessed her young sister, Lily, falling to her death form a tree while Ava sat in the shade reading a book.  Their mother, guilty because of the extra-marital affair in which she was engaging when her beloved daughter died, finally abandons her lover and her family, leaving her car at a local bridge and disappearing forever.  Although her body is never found, she is presumed to have committed suicide, and Ava and her father are left to grieve as a family of two.  Ava finds comfort in a novel given to her by her neighbor, reading it over and over again after the loss of her other,.  This is the same novel that she suggests for the book group.

While Ava is adjusting to being part of the book group, her daughter Maggie, supposedly studying art in Italy, follows a boy to France and ends up alone and vulnerable, finally meeting and falling in love with an older, manipulative man who introduces her to heroin.  Maggie is not a nice girl nor a particularly likable character.  She is promiscuous and pretty wanton, experienced far beyond her years with sex and various drugs.  I found it a little unbelievable that her mother, especially one whose daughter has caused so many problems and made so many bad choices in the past, could spend such a long period of time without any substantial communication with Maggie, whose harrowing story is told in chapters alternating with Ava's.

Despite the need to suspend belief a bit (but, really, isn't real life often unbelievable?), I loved this novel.  Perhaps it's because I'm a book lover, or maybe it was the interesting cast of characters.  Ann  Hood is now officially on my list of favorite authors!