Off Keck Road by Mona Simpson

Off Keck Road

Mona Simpson

This novel is a journey through three women's lives. We travel with them as they make a life for themselves, despite the restrictions imposed by growing up in a small mid Western town where everyone knows their neighbours. Your sympathy and understanding are fully engaged. You want them to succeed, to make something of their lives despite their mixed beginnings. Reading this book is a positive experience, but tinged with sadness.

Extract
With June, Bea had the endless fugal back-and-forth conversations about love that she had missed as a girl. To anyone else listening, even Hazel, when she had the chance to eavesdrop, these talks sounded repetitive, but they weren't, not exactly. They repeated only the way that scientists review their data when they are stumped, or pianists return to the beginning of a phrase after an error. They reiterated only in order to refine.
Parallels
  • The Idea of Perfection by Kate Grenville
  • Lucia, Lucia by Adriana Trigiani