Faithful Women

I read this book because it was recommended by a friend, even though I personally found the cover unappealing. The good writing quickly drew me in and along till the very end. I agree with both of the preceding reviews, although I felt more affinity with the protagonist. Her life was interwoven in the way each of our lives is interwoven with those around us. Barbara Shoup shows us a finely textured web from various and interesting angles.For me the book had just the right touch of depth and lightness. It was an easy read while also being one that you found yourself contemplating when you weren't reading it.

I read this book for my book club. It has all the best features of a period piece--with wonderful details about the homefront during World War II--and yet it is set in the late 1980s. The book also has an engaging story of a woman coming to terms with the family that wasn't what she wanted--a family that never quite "fit" her. At mid-life, she is forced to confront her own past, to come to understand the hidden roles people she loved played in complicating her young life, and to begin to open her own heart and move on. Filled with other details about art and archaeology, you'll learn while you enjoy!

Reading "Faithful Women" was like riding the "teacup and saucer" ride at Disneyland in slow motion. This attraction whirls you around in a teacup while swinging you horizontally to different points on the ride's axis. That is to say that the book brought me in and out of time and place in a rhythmic glide. The experience starts with a child's first memory and from there you move from various scenes including a Fourth of July picnic in Midwest America, wartime London, to Vermeer contemplating in his kitchen in Holland. The past and present are stirred around and around, with the characters becoming increasingly multi-dimensional. Besides providing a history and archeology lesson, you get a detailed description of how to restore a masterpiece painting. Which is essentially what the story is about, one woman's discovery that sometimes there is more than meets the eye in terms of the opinions that she has formed about her family and herself. Only by dabbing at the surface image do things start revealing themselves to her.Though I didn't feel an affinity for the protagonist, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride through time and appreciated the amount of research that Ms. Shoup conducted to make it real. Just like the sensation of motion doesn't stop when you've descended from a ride, this story kept turning in my mind for weeks after I had finished the book.

Reading "Faithful Women" was like riding the "teacup and saucer" ride at Disneyland in slow motion. This attraction whirls you around in a teacup while swinging you horizontally to different points on the ride's axis. That is to say that the book brought me in and out of time and place in a rhythmic glide. The experience starts with a child's first memory and from there you move from various scenes including a Fourth of July picnic in Midwest America, to wartime London, to Vermeer contemplating in his kitchen in Holland. The past and present are stirred around and around, with the characters becoming increasingly multi-dimensional. Besides providing a history and archeology lesson, you get a detailed description of how to restore a masterpiece painting. Which is essentially what the story is about, one woman's discovery that sometimes there is more than meets the eye in terms of the opinions that she has formed about her family and herself. Only by dabbing at the surface image do things start revealing themselves to her.Though I didn't feel an affinity for the protagonist, I thoroughly enjoyed the ride through time and appreciated the amount of research that Ms. Shoup conducted to make it real. Just like the sensation of motion doesn't stop when you've descended from a ride, this story kept turning in my mind for weeks after I had finished the book.