A Soft Place to Land
Jul 28, 2010
A Soft Place to Land
Author: Susan Rebecca White
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: Touchstone Books; Original edition (April 6, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1416558691
ISBN-13: 978-1416558699
Ruthie and Julia live a very nice, very comfortable life in Atlanta. They have all they need, go to the right schools, wear the right clothes. Ruthie toes the line and is always polite and well mannered. Julia is a wild child who regularly attempts to break the constraints of polite society. They deal well as sisters, but are not what I would consider tight with each other.
Then tragedy strikes, bringing their cushy, protected lives to an end as they know it. Their parents die in a plane crash while on vacation alone. To add to that misery, the will that their parents left contains a shock. Julia was her mom’s daughter with her first husband so she and Ruthie are only step-sisters. Julia is to go live with her Dad in Virginia while Ruthie is to go live with her Dad’s sister in San Francisco.
I have to put in a little sidenote here that I have moved from Atlanta to San Francisco and was highly amused by Ruthie’s shock at how cold San Francisco was when she arrived in the middle of summer. I practically froze that first year!
The book follows their next two decades of separation, guilt over their parents death, blame over why it happened and caused their lives to change so. The question is whether they can overcome all of their distance – physically and emotionally – to remain sisters and family.
A good book that will make you think, especially as parents trying to make the decision on who will raise your children in the event that you can’t.
Susan’s first book, Bound South, was reviewed by the Dew in January, 2009.
