I dove into this book with only the briefest look at its blurb. All I knew was that many of my fellow book bloggers were heaping accolades on this story and I wanted to see if this high praise was warranted.
Yes. Yes, it is … and then some.
I don't give out five star reviews easily but this book blew me away. Told using two time lines (1950's and 1990's) and several POVs, this is a riveting and intensely emotional story that pulls readers into the ups and downs, the secrets and omissions and the tight bonds of a family dealing with multi-generational mental illness, declining health in an elderly parent and loss.
I'm from a large, close-knit family and Rimmer's characterization of the Walsh family, particularly the four siblings, resonated with me - their bonds, their issues and their banter. As the story progresses, this foursome unearths secrets that have been kept hidden from them for decades. But it was how Rimmer addressed certain issues that solidified this book as a five star read for me. Particularly her sensitive but informative handling of postpartum depression - the disconnect, debilitating feelings of inadequacy and the social stigma. While these scenes felt quite intense at times, I appreciate that Rimmer doesn't hold back but always writes with understanding and compassion.
Wonderfully insightful, poignant and tenderly told, Truths I Never Told You is a book that helped me sympathize with women whose experience with motherhood is affected by mental illness, makes me thankful for my own family and for a society that has evolved (and continues to evolve) in regards to the rights of women.
My Rating: 5 stars
Author: Kelly RimmerGenre: Historical Fiction (WWII)
Type and Source: eBook from Library
Publisher: Graydon House
First Published: March 24, 2020
Opening Lines: Grace - September 14, 1957 -- I am alone in a crowded family these days, and that's the worst feeling I've ever experienced. Until these past few years, I had no idea that loneliness is worse than sadness. I've come to realize that's because loneliness, by its very definition, cannot be shared.
Book Description from GoodReads: From the bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say comes a poignant novel about the fault in memories and the lies that can bond a family together—or tear it apart.
With her father recently moved to a care facility for his worsening dementia, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home and is surprised to discover the door to her childhood playroom padlocked. She’s even more shocked at what’s behind it—a hoarder’s mess of her father’s paintings, mounds of discarded papers and miscellaneous junk in the otherwise fastidiously tidy house.
As she picks through the clutter, she finds a loose journal entry in what appears to be her late mother’s handwriting. Beth and her siblings grew up believing their mother died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but this note suggests something much darker. Beth soon pieces together a disturbing portrait of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and a husband who bears little resemblance to the loving father Beth and her siblings know. With a newborn of her own and struggling with motherhood, Beth finds there may be more tying her and her mother together than she ever suspected.
Exploring the expectations society places on women of every generation, Kelly Rimmer explores the profound struggles two women unwittingly share across the decades set within an engrossing family mystery that may unravel everything they believed to be true.
As she picks through the clutter, she finds a loose journal entry in what appears to be her late mother’s handwriting. Beth and her siblings grew up believing their mother died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but this note suggests something much darker. Beth soon pieces together a disturbing portrait of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and a husband who bears little resemblance to the loving father Beth and her siblings know. With a newborn of her own and struggling with motherhood, Beth finds there may be more tying her and her mother together than she ever suspected.
Exploring the expectations society places on women of every generation, Kelly Rimmer explores the profound struggles two women unwittingly share across the decades set within an engrossing family mystery that may unravel everything they believed to be true.
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