About the Book:

One of the most remarkable things about this rich, moving and altogether stunning first novel is Mitchard’s assured command of narrative structure and stylistic resources. Her story about a child’s kidnapping and its enduring effects upon his parents, siblings and extended family is a blockbuster read. When three-year-old Ben Cappadora is abducted from a crowded Chicago hotel lobby where his mother, Beth, has taken him and his two siblings for her 15th high-school reunion, Beth’s slow-motion nightmare is just the beginning of nine years of anguish about his fate. Beth retreats into an emotionless, fugue-like state, in which she neglects her surviving two children-oldest child Vincent and a baby daughter, Kerry-and seals herself off from her husband, Pat, the manager of a family restaurant near their home in Madison, Wisc. Yet jolting surprises continue to rock the narrative, as clues to Ben’s fate emerge and the tension in the Cappadoras’ marriage accelerates. That tension is partly responsible for and partly reflects the now teenaged Vincent’s increasingly aggressive behavior, his desperate effort to forget that he had been in charge of his younger brother when Ben disappeared. Meanwhile, the large, voluble Cappadora clan remains faithful to the hope of Ben’s return, disapproving of Beth’s cold, angry denial that she will ever see her boy again. When she does, after nine years have passed, a series of bitter ironies drives the family off balance once more. Mitchard imbues her suspenseful plot with disturbingly candid psychological truths about motherhood and family relationships. Displaying an infallible ear for family conversation and a keen eye for domestic detail, she writes dialogue that vibrates with natural and unforced humor and acerbic repartee. She charts the subtle and minute gradations of maternal love with candor and captures the essence of teenage experiences and lingo. The novel becomes a universal tale of traumatic loss and its effects on individuals and families, an astute inquiry into the wellsprings of identity and a parable of redemption through suffering and love.

Book Read:  ★★★★★★

I have frequently read books that I have found haunting for their realism, in a linear storyline.  And there are those that are haunting for their portrayal of impossible circumstances that the characters must overcome.  I have even found some books that are haunting for their portrayal of characters so real that they become a part of the reader, and stay with them like old friends, removed but still present in memory.  But this is one book that encapsulated all of these elements.

While on the surface this is a story of a young child that is kidnapped from a hotel, while his mother is within hearing distance of her children, that is not the only story that is being told in this book.  This story carries a much more poignant impact today following the case of Elizabeth Smart, and others that have not only been victims of kidnappings, but against the odds, have been returned home following their ordeal.  And granted, the kidnapping of a child, horrifying as it is, is the central basis of the plot of this story — it is certainly not the single reason for the book.  This is a story that looks closely at the dynamics of a family, under the most extreme of situations, and how the individuals learn to survive within the construct of a family setting, when the unimaginable happens.

I am always amazed at family dynamics — and having worked around a court system that deals with family law for several years now, I have always been of the opinion that family relationships are messy — no matter how you look at it.  These are the people that you spend the most time with in your life.  They are the people that know everything about you, not just the image that you try to create.  They are also the ones that drive you crazy, make you cry and laugh, stand by you through the good times and bad.  They can be the very best, or the very worst influence in your life — and all because they are the ones that are always there.  But within the family structure, there is still the individual — and when extreme situations arise, it is frequently difficult for the individual responses, and the family responses to merge, and balance in a close proximity.  Combine that, as is demonstrated in this story with the trauma of public scrutiny and constant public investigation and judgment, and the dynamics of a family can be completely rewritten.

This book is an excellent look into the dynamics of one family, and how it can change through the course of loosing a child, and dealing with the unknown of what became of that child when there is no resolution for nearly ten years.  The pain, suffering, and the stresses that create the breakdown in a family as they struggle to come to terms with the backlash of emotions of guilt, grief, pain, and suffering are very real, and they are not made to be melodramatic in any way.  Ms. Mitchard has presented a story that shows the struggles that the individuals face in dealing with the trauma, and what happens when the individual suffering gets in the way of seeing the struggles of those closest to you.

From Beth, a mother that completely shuts down, and withdraws from family life, to Pat — the father that is trying to hold everything together, while he struggles with trying to give his remaining children some semblance of a normal life.  Vincent’s turn to delinquency, in an extreme cry for help, and his declaration of pain all speak of how difficult it is to draw strength from the people you would normally draw comfort from, when they, themselves have no strength left to give.  While I don’t believe anyone will ever completely understand what it means to loose a child, unless they have been there — this book does offer at least a glimpse of what can make or break the dynamics of a family, normally strong, and even close, when they are forcibly torn apart from outside forces.

And yet, it is the reintroduction of a changeling that brings the ultimate breaking point for all of the members of the Capadora family, and demonstrates that there is never any going back to what was.  The damage that was inflicted on all parties involved in the madness of the loss of a child is permanent — and even if that child is restored, there is no way to return to what could have been.  But this book also shows us the difficulties that arise in trying to forge a new future, one that was never planned — but rather forced upon this family, already in crisis.

I was originally hesitant to read this book, because many people that told me about the movie, and they didn’t really like how it ended, and felt that there was something missing from the story.  And that does come through in the book to an extent.  But after having read this book, I have decided two things.  First — the book and the movie, in this instance are light years apart.  The movie, as I understand it focuses on the kidnapping story itself, where the book focuses on the family, and the demands of trying the remake that family more than once under impossible circumstances.  Second — The power of this story is very real, and lives with the reader long after the book is closed — due to the personal nature of the characters encountering extreme emotion, under difficult circumstances.

We are all forced to endure change in this life.  And change, something that most people tend to avoid, is the element of life that will either make an individual, or break them.  This story, written to demonstrate this principle, while magnified through the horrifying nature of the circumstances, is very real in the difficulties that people must overcome, when dealing with change.

Tags: Family, Grief, Kidnapping, Loss, Mystery, Siblings, Suffering, Survivor, Suspense

Category: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense/Thriller