 
|
It’s the end of March in the Adirondacks. Rose Latham and her older sister, Ivy, have an accident. Rose fares well; Ivy ends up on a ventilator being fed through a tube in her stomach.
Rose and her sister are inseparable, one year apart, with very different ways of viewing life - inseparable, though. Rose seeks solace wherever she can find it, and with whomever. Ivy cannot speak, cannot open her eyes, her brain is damaged.
William T., the Latham’s neighbor, takes Rose to visit Ivy. He has been friends with the girls since the death of his own son. Rose’s mother makes paper cranes to keep her hands busy but won’t go to visit Ivy in Utica. No one but William T. and Rose visit Ivy, not even her boyfriend, Joe Miller.
Rose exists through a series of rituals and support. The repetition of these actions and the people helping her are what bring her through. Although this is touted as a young adult volume, it’s appropriate for any adult reader. I would recommend it to anyone for its artistic treatment of a difficult subject. Its language is poetic, use of metaphor profound, and denouement fitting.
|
|
All Rivers Flow to the Sea