WRITERS ABROAD MAGAZINE: THE THIRD SPACE
Book Reviews
Left Neglected by Lisa Genova
Review by Crilly O’Neil
It is the story of Sarah Nickerson, a very driven woman in her
middle thirties and a high-flying executive in America. Sarah is a
mother of two and the classic over-achiever. Her life is a
constant juggling act that is rapidly spinning out of control.
One rainy day, Sarah is involved in a very serious car accident
and sustains a brain injury which erases the left side of her
world.’ Left Neglected’ tells how Sarah deals with this and
equally, how the family deal with Sarah. There are highs and
lows in her journey to good health intermingled with sadness and
humour
Recently, I was fortunate enough to hear the author give the closing address at the West
Australian Writers Festival and found Lisa began her working life as a nurse. She then
studied hard and achieved a PhD in Neuroscience. From start to finish, there is the sense
that this book is a well-researched and there were times when I felt as if I was standing on
the side-lines cheering Sarah on. As for the ending of the book and whether she would
recover enough to return to her life as Vice-President of the big company, the author keeps
you guessing until almost the end.
I would recommend this insightful book to anyone who enjoyed Lisa’s novel ‘Still Alice,’ and
anyone with a slight interest in anything medical for in the long run, this is a book of hope.
A Few of the Girls by Maeve Binchy
Review by Sue Borgerson.
Best selling (over 40 million books worldwide) author Maeve Binchy
died in 2012. But what a legacy she has left us. Including a book of
short stories, A Few of the Girls, released in 2015.
Over 400 pages, with 40 finely crafted stories about perfectly flawed
characters in true Binchy style. This is not a book to devour, but one to
savour slowly, as I did, one story per evening. It is a book to read
again. And again - whenever you need reassurance that a story with a
beginning, a middle, and an ending that resolves conflict, is in fact a
very good story.
And the title? A Few of the Girls? While being the title of one of the
stories, it does beg the question: are there more? I, for one, really
hope so.
29 | May 2016