The Blue Window

November 14, 2022
Berne (The Dogs of Littlefield) offers an engrossing story of family secrets involving a woman’s estranged mother and her troubled son. Lorna is a successful therapist in Massachusetts whose husband has moved to Seattle and is living with his much younger research assistant. Lorna’s son, Adam, has recently returned from college, and she senses something terrible happened to him there, but he refuses to speak to her and instead spends his time watching YouTube videos. Then Lorna learns her mother, Marika, has hurt herself in a fall, and she decides to go to with Adam to see her. Marika lives in an isolated cabin in Vermont, and soon the three of them are stuck in a web of resentment and failed communication. Marika abandoned Lorna and her older brother when they were children, and when Lorna confronts Marika one night about her leaving them, Marika’s revelations bring up old wounds for Lorna. With chapters that alternate between points in time and Lorna, Adam, and Marika’s perspectives, the author expertly shows how secrets fester and affect the family, especially as Adam’s allegiances bend toward Marika. Though the tension ends up feeling a bit drawn out, Berne’s strong prose carries the day, particularly her descriptions of Vermont’s natural beauty. In the end, it’s a satisfying family drama. Agent: Colleen Mohyde, Doe Coover.

November 15, 2022
These people are related--but can they relate? Berne, who won the Orange Prize for A Crime in the Neighborhood, her 1997 debut, and more recently charmed readers with the social satire The Dogs of Littlefield (2016), chooses a tight focus for her latest: the tense dynamics of three troubled individuals as they play out over a few days in rural Vermont. Marika is a Dutch survivor of the Nazi occupation; she lives alone in a run-down cottage by a lake, where the action occurs. Marika has been only barely in touch with her daughter, Lorna, whom she abandoned along with her husband and son when the children were young, resurfacing more than 30 years later, after the birth of Lorna's son. Lorna is a therapist whose husband has recently left her for another woman and moved to the West Coast; she is dealing with the return from college of her 19-year-old, Adam, after a traumatic experience he will not share--nor has she ever told him about her mother's abandonment. Following his mysterious humiliation, Adam has embarked on what he thinks of as a "scourge" that involves, among other things, rejecting the first-person pronoun and proper names. He is A, his parents are X and Y, and this makes the first chapter, written from his perspective, a tough read. "A did away with I. I=Death." When Lorna learns that Marika has sprained her ankle and needs family assistance, she asks Adam to accompany her on the road trip. He agrees only as part of his self-abnegation project but then finds he has a more positive response to his gruff, unappealing grandmother than to what he sees as his pathetic, approval-seeking mom. Lorna, though miserable, is smart enough to see what's going on. "People who suffered a trauma often felt that if it went unmentioned it was containable, which led to intimacy issues." So Marika's not talking about her very dark war experience, Lorna's not talking about her childhood, and Adam sure as hell isn't telling what happened at college. Until they all do. A bleak but psychologically insightful portrait of family dynamics.

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December 1, 2022

Lorna is a therapist who seeks answers as to why her mother Marika abandoned the family when Lorna was only seven years old. Before Marika left, she would visit Lorna's bedroom and relate the stories of her youth working for the Resistance in Holland during World War II. Marika reached out years later with a postcard after Lorna gave birth to her son Adam, but their entire relationship consists of a yearly Thanksgiving dinner. When Adam abruptly quits college and returns home, seemingly trying to disappear, Lorna is determined to help him. When she learns that Marika has had an accident and needs help in Vermont, decides that a road trip may be the answer to solving Adam's withdrawal. She is also determined to finally find the reason why her mother left. The story is told in alternating chapters by Adam, retreating from life and referring to himself as only as "A" and refusing to speak in the first person, Lorna, and Marika. In the end, the answers that Lorna seeks will be revealed, but at a cost. VERDICT Berne (The Dogs of Littlefield) has crafted an insightful novel about family secrets and the emotional trauma that reverberates through three generations.--Catherine Coyne

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2022
Lorna, a therapist, knows that if people want to solve their problems, they have to talk about them. So when her son, Adam, drops out of college, clearly traumatized by an event he refuses to speak about, Lorna is consumed with worry but finds herself in familiar territory. When Lorna was a little girl, her mother, Marika, scarred by childhood events in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, left the family, an experience that Lorna, like Adam, refuses to share. When a neighbor calls to tell her that Marika has had a bad fall, Lorna decides to travel to Marika's remote Vermont home. Adam reluctantly agrees to come with her, and Lorna hopes the change of scene will help him heal. Their trip turns out to be eventful in ways both serendipitous and disastrous, as Berne builds suspense with a slow reveal of the long-hidden secrets at the root of three generations of shame and lost opportunities. Berne's (The Dogs of Littlefield, 2016) compelling fifth novel is an engaging exploration of how trauma can leave its mark in unexpected ways.

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