Anyone who loves a good heartfelt story will find it in 如何和为什么 by 辛西娅的手. Al虽然 this is the story of many characters, it is told primarily from the viewpoint of Cassandra McMurtrey.
Cass has just turned 18, and as an adopted child, that age makes her eligible to pursue the backstory of her 采用 and to receive letters written in a letter project by the mothers who gave their children away in the hopes of securing for them a richer life. Cass’ curiosity and desire for answers about her identity lead her on a convoluted journey of self-discovery.
Cass’ best friend Nyla Henderson, who is also an adopted child, accompanies her on this journey. Nyla is direct, loyal, and a combination of “good girl and badass.” Both girls are talented actresses living in Idaho Falls, which Cass refers to as “a white-bread town,” while they dream of Hollywood and Broadway. 然而, 只有妮拉, whose father is a brain surgeon, will likely be able to afford the price tag on that dream.
Another of Cass’ 剧院 friends is the handsome, funny, and smart Bastian Banks. Cass is attracted to this young man who quotes Shakespeare at random times and has a voice that could melt [a girl’s] heart into a puddle of butter” (266-67). Readers will ride out this relationship between Cass and Bastian to uncover several surprises.
In a parallel story, Cass’s mother is hospitalized and in need of a 心脏移植手术. This situation, as well as others, have made Cass a resident of cold, hard reality. The medical bills have consumed Cass’ college fund for Julliard, and she’s not sure she wants to attend a school in Idaho. But she and her 家庭 are really good at acting like everything is fine, even 虽然 her mother may die before a donor heart becomes available.
Despite her mother’s belief that “the universe unfolds as it should” (19), Cass learns that the universe can be unreliable and unfair. 很快, she’s choking on “never-ending disappointment,” tired of pretending that stuff doesn’t bother her, tired of always thinking about other people instead of herself. While wallowing in her anger, she lashes out at her best friend with a racist remark that ruptures her relationship.
Immersed in this emotional agony, thinking she has won the award for enduring the most pain in life, Cass receives a reminder from her father that we all experience tough times. When we’re going through rough patches, 虽然, that is when we most need to rely on our loved ones, to lean on the people we love, 而不是把他们推开.
In another parallel plot thread, the reader learns the backstory of Cass’ birth mother, as she relives her experiences as a sixteen-year-old pregnant teen. Her life is revealed through the poignant and candid letters that she writes to her baby, 她叫他X, letters which she signs, S.
Readers grow attached to S, who sincerely struggles with her decision but wants to do what is right by her unborn child. Afraid that she’ll pick wrong as she searches for the perfect adoptive parents, S notices the limitations of an application: “I wish there were a way for them to be truly honest when they fill out these forms. I wish I could see not only their beautiful little dreams of a 家庭, but their fears, too. Their flaws, instead of only their strengths. 真相. Not the polished up for-company version” (193).
As Cass searches for the story of where she came from, 方法和原因, she learns valuable lessons about mistakes and their inability to define us. It’s what we do with those mistakes that have the potential to make us incredibly giving or brave or loving.
Perhaps the most valuable lesson in Hand’s book is that “none of us really get to have our own, 各自的生活. Our lives are always all horribly tangled up with the people around us. The people we love” (247).
- 由唐娜发布