This book, Up From the Blue, was one of those books that was kind of pushed onto me at book club one month. I listened to the two previous readers of it review the book by saying they couldn't "like" it, but they did recommend it saying that you just needed to read it for yourself. I think this is an accurate recommendation from me as well...let me start with a synopsis...
Tilly Harris has just moved back to D.C., heavily pregnant and alone (her husband is away on business). She is attempting to unpack her house, which has no phone yet connected, when she starts to feel the first pangs of an early labor. Knowing she simply needs to get to the nearest hospital, she goes next door to request use of their phone. Tilly doesn't know a soul in town, has no idea where the nearest hospital is and has no idea where she is because she has yet to memorize their new address (leaving calling a cab out of the question). So...Tilly calls her estranged father who still lives in D.C., but with whom she hasn't spoke with in over two years.
Tilly's father arranges a cab and meets her at the hospital. This unleashes a torrent of memories from Tilly's childhood, specifically her 3rd grade year. The most traumatic year of her childhood.
In that year, Tilly remembers the move from Albuquerque to D.C. for her father's job. She remembers being packed up and deposited at her father's secretary's house, who watched her for almost a month. In the meantime, Tilly's brother and two parents made the cross-country move to D.C. Tilly remembers her mother being...well, crazy. Certifiable, really. However, Tilly loved her very much and was shocked when she arrived in D.C. to discover that her mother was...gone. Not a trace. Tilly's father goes along as though nothing has happened and just expects the two kids to pick up the slack.
I'm not going to say anything more because I don't want to give this book away. But, I want you to think The Glass Castle and Saving CeeCee Honeycutt. If you've read either of these books, you know how engaging and...well...messed up things are in their plots. There was, literally, a moment halfway through the book where I couldn't figure out if Tilly was just as crazy as her mother or if the craziness was really and truly happening.
I would definitely recommend this book, but at the same time say that it's pretty messed up. Dysfunction at it's finest. Let me know if you decide to pick it up!
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