True Places by Sonja YoergMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
True Places is a well-written novel of self discovery in a modern suburban American family. I'm just not the target audience.
I picked up True Places when Amazon gave us Prime members an opportunity to grab one of its best 2018 books. I knew going in that the contemporary fiction genre isn't exactly my style, but I like to branch out every once in a while and it fit nicely into a sort of book club I'm doing with some online friends.
The story in the novel revolves around Suzanne, a middle-aged suburban mother of two with what appears to be a perfect life; and Iris, a lost teenage girl who has lived her whole life off the grid. Suzanne's ideal life is only skin-deep, subordinating her own needs and desires to those of her family. Helping Iris is a catalyst that prompts Suzanne to examine her own life and begin to find her own place.
Yoerg does a fine job of implementing that summary. Her characters have depth, each with significant strengths and weaknesses. The writing style is easy to understand - I particularly like the use of short chapters, often changing from one viewpoint character to another, keeping the reader appraised of what's going on in the heads of each.
So why isn't this book for me? I found it to be formulaic and, well, kind of boring. The "mom who over-invests in family and has no self-worth of her own" isn't exactly a new character, nor is the idea of what is basically a mid-life crisis. Iris' situation is interesting at first, but rapidly turns into "wild girl gets civilized" without any significant surprises. Honestly, I was kind of hoping she'd do something completely crazy and unexpected just to spice things up. No such luck.
I still liked True Places, don't get me wrong...I'm not saying it's a bad book. It's a fine example of a contemporary novel that makes some pretty pointed commentary on the necessity of living your own life, rather than trying to build your life as nothing but support for others. But I've heard all that before, and the same story told again is still the same story, well-written or no.
