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Mele’s Musings: Dealing with a sense of loss

<p>I love the movie &#8220;Sliding Doors.&#8221; You know, the one with Gwyneth Paltrow where she misses her train and her life goes one way, but another version of her catches that train and her life goes in a totally different direction. It&#8217;s a bit of a cheesy romantic comedy, but it&#8217;s one of my favorites.</p><p>&#8220;The Bookseller&#8221; has been described as a literary version of the film, which naturally appealed to me. The story follows Kitty Miller, a 38-year-old single woman in Denver in the 1960s, who co-owns a bookstore with her dear friend, Frieda. She is content with her life. She is close with her parents, socializes regularly with Frieda and the only concern she really has is her store, which is struggling to make a profit.</p><p>Kitty has never married. She was in a long term relationship that ended years before and despite placing an ad in the classifieds section, nothing ever came to fruition. Still, she feels as though that chapter of her life is closed.</p><p>One night, she has a vivid dream that she is married to her dream man, Lars Andersson, and is the mother to two adorable children, Mitch and Missy. The dream feels so real to her that when she wakes, she has to shake off the feeling that was her real life.</p><p>After a little investigating, Kitty recalls that Lars Andersson was actually a real man, one who she enjoyed a correspondence with after placing a classifieds ad eight years before. They had followed up with a lovely phone conversation that led to making a date. However, Lars never showed up, and after that, Kitty gave up searching for love. She learns now that Lars stood her up because he had a heart attack the night they spoke on the phone and died.</p><p>In the dream world, Kitty learns they stayed on the phone long enough for her to become aware that he was having trouble breathing and managed to get medical help for him. Lars survived and after a whirlwind romance, they married.</p><p>Each night, Kitty returns to her life as Katharyn Andersson, wife to Lars and mother to the twins. Her marriage to Lars seems perfect. He is truly the man of her dreams, and so she is saddened when she wakes at the loss of that life, even if it isn&#8217;t real.</p><p>The dreams become more frequent, to the point that Kitty is unable to recall time passing in her real life. She learns more and more about her life as Katharyn and despite the dream husband and children, pieces of Kitty seem to be lost.</p><p>Katharyn is more conservative than Kitty. She learns her bookstore is no longer open and that she has had a serious falling out with Frieda, who went on to be the successful owner of a chain of bookstores. Other tragedies have struck the life of Katharyn Andersson, namely that she has a third child, Michael, who is autistic.</p><p>Autism in the 1960s was less understood than it is today. Mothers were often blamed for the condition, especially working moms. Kitty struggles to understand her third child, especially as the other two triplets are &#8220;normal&#8221; kids. She is appalled by her own reactions to her child, which leads to tension between her and Lars.</p><p>Even as it appears that the dream world isn&#8217;t as perfect as it once seemed, Kitty comes to the realization she doesn&#8217;t know which life is real. The mystery slowly unfolds throughout the book, leaving the reader guessing. Initially, at least, Katharyn&#8217;s life seems ideal and you wish that were the real one, and yet as more of her life is revealed, Kitty&#8217;s single world seems ideal.</p><p>Kitty/Katharyn struggles to cope with the challenges in both lives and with figuring out which life is the one she truly wants. And once she decides, will it turn out that life is the real one?</p><p>I liked this book more than I thought judging from the first couple chapters, which were a bit slow and stilted. Once I learned more about Katharyn, it was hard not to get sucked into the mystery of the parallel lives. It&#8217;s not the best written book, but it was an engaging story and easy to get through, ideal for a vacation or quick holiday read.</p><style>
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<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Dorothy Sasso</p><p>On the Books</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p>&#8220;The Bookseller&#8221;</p><p>Author: Cynthia Swanson</p><p>Page Count: 352</p><p>Publisher: Harper</p><p>Rating:&#9830;&#9830;&#9830; 1/2</p></factboxMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Dorothy Sasso is a former Soap Opera Digest writer and a private school teacher. She is busy reading books and raising her daughter.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

“The Bookseller” takes the reader on a journey to explore parallel lives