A Good Distance/Sarah Willis

Two difficult subjects are covered – the aftermath of a parent and husband’s death and Alzheimer’s disease – and both are handled well. The story switches voices between mother and daughter and the writing from the mother’s point of view seemed like an accurate portrayal of what it might feel like to be in the shoes of an Alzheimer’s patient. The daughter, Jennifer, is seemingly desperate in her search for redemption from her mother for past transgressions as she races to her goal before time runs out and her mother no longer comprehends what she wants to say. The story of each the mother’s and daughter’s pasts were quite engaging. However reading this immediately after “You’re Not You” was hard due to similarly serious subject matter. Each book was so absorbing I have needed to take a few days off from reading to shake the dark shroud of the weighty subject matters. I don’t recommend reading these titles back-to-back.

From the Publisher

“A Good Distance” is a heartrending story about mothers and daughters doing their best to negotiate the distance between freedom and love.

Jennifer's mother, Rose, belongs in a home. At least that's what everyone else thinks. But Jennifer has walked away from her mother too many times already, and this is one duty she intends to fulfill herself. So she takes a leave of absence from her job and invites Rose to live with her and her family. Jennifer's teenage daughter and new husband can hardly tolerate Rose and her short temper, but Jennifer is desperate to know about the memories drifting in and out of her mother's reach, sometimes comforting her, sometimes tormenting her. Jennifer longs to use these memories to help rebuild her mother's life—to remind herself, and her mother, what went wrong, so she can ask for forgiveness—or is it the other way around?

Author Biography: Sarah Willis, a Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of the Cleveland Arts Prize for Literature, is also the author of The Rehearsal and the New York Times Notable Book Some Things That Stay, which won the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction.