Happy Release Day!
Congratulations Elayne
on the release today of
Love is a Rebellious Bird!
Love is a Rebellious Bird by Elayne Klasson
Paperback and e-book, 336 pages
Published November 12th 2019 by She Writes Press
Who is it we love and why do we love these people?
Toward the end of her life, Judith asks these questions, trying to understand why she chose Elliot Pine to love. Why, for sixty years, did she persist in loving someone who never gave as much as he was given? In her quest for understanding, she writes her story to this exceptional man.
Meeting as children in Chicago, they move to opposite coasts. Elliot embarks on a remarkable legal career in Washington and New York while Judith raises her children alone in California, after tragedy. Coming together again and again throughout their lives, their love is never equal, Elliot defining the terms of the relationship.
Judith examines the role of Beauty in love, for Elliot's face and form were beautiful. She considers the role of Consolation, how they supported one another in devastating times. Insanity, Magic, Deceit, Sensory Fulfillment, and, finally, Being Seen—Judith looks at these many aspects of her love.
Her feelings for this man cost her, impinged on every other relationship in her life: friends, her two husbands, even her three children. After sixty years, however, it all changes. Judith makes one more profound sacrifice, finally achieving a sort of long-awaited happiness in her love.
My thoughts about Love is a Rebellious Bird ~~
(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)
First line—"Over seventy, I am considered by most of the world and for most of history, an old woman. I find that all of those things said about getting old are true."
Love is a Rebellious Bird is, in essence, a sad but touching love letter from Judith to her one true love, Elliot. As their relationship spans over sixty years, Judith documents her feelings and the love, mostly unrequited, that she has for her friend. Sad though it is that Elliot never feels as deeply as she does, Love is a Rebellious Bird is still a heartwarming, beautiful story.
Over her long life, Judith hangs on to the one friend who has been a constant in her life. Through husbands, death, divorce, and children she has always known that he would be there. In reality though, he was there when it was convenient for him, not her. But still, she always held out hope that someday he would love her and need her as much as she loved and needed him. I have to admit, there where times that I just wanted to shake her and make her see his true worth and to tell her she deserved so much more.
Love is a Rebellious Bird is an excellent character-driven novel, which focuses on the mindset of one woman as she maneuvers through her life—as she struggles to finds her happiness and her purpose.
Thank you to JKS Communications and She Writes Press for an ARC of Love is a Rebellious Bird. This is my honest review of the book.
**********************
Be sure to stop back tomorrow to check out a very interesting interview with Elayne.
About the author
Author Elayne Klasson has never done anything just halfway: from a career of scholastic achievements, contributions to society and bold moves, to her rise as a writer to successful newspaper columnist. Her debut novel, Love is a Rebellious Bird, is no exception—her first to be published with She Writes Press.
Elayne grew up in Chicago. She went to university and graduate school in the Midwest—Ohio State University and the University of Michigan—where she earned a Masters of Public Health and a PhD in Psychology. For several years she lived in Barbados, West Indies, working as a health care consultant with Project Hope; then returning as a writer and columnist for the Barbados Daily Nation.
Her professional career has largely been in academia at San Jose State University, with her research and clinical area of expertise being the severely mentally ill. A recent transplant to the Santa Ynez Valley, near Santa Barbara, California, she is a popular lifestyle newspaper columnist there. Elayne has appeared on San Francisco public television as a restaurant critic.
She’s been awarded several writer’s residencies, including Hedgebrook Writers' Colony on Whidbey Island, Washington and Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, California.
She daily walks her young dachshund and aged fluffy white rescue through nearby vineyards. Married to David, a scientist, they have five children between them, all grown. ~ Author's website
Elayne grew up in Chicago. She went to university and graduate school in the Midwest—Ohio State University and the University of Michigan—where she earned a Masters of Public Health and a PhD in Psychology. For several years she lived in Barbados, West Indies, working as a health care consultant with Project Hope; then returning as a writer and columnist for the Barbados Daily Nation.
Her professional career has largely been in academia at San Jose State University, with her research and clinical area of expertise being the severely mentally ill. A recent transplant to the Santa Ynez Valley, near Santa Barbara, California, she is a popular lifestyle newspaper columnist there. Elayne has appeared on San Francisco public television as a restaurant critic.
She’s been awarded several writer’s residencies, including Hedgebrook Writers' Colony on Whidbey Island, Washington and Villa Montalvo in Saratoga, California.
She daily walks her young dachshund and aged fluffy white rescue through nearby vineyards. Married to David, a scientist, they have five children between them, all grown. ~ Author's website
Connect with Elayne
*********************
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks SO much for leaving me a comment! Every single one means a whole lot to me!