How to Be Lost

If you were troubled by "At the deep end of the ocean," then "How to be lost" will make you smile. I won't say how. Yes, I will. Take two pencils, one in each hand with a large sheet of paper under them. Set them on the paper and move them around, especially the one in your right hand--up and down and around. The left hand just kind of stays there until you arc it to the left then sweep all the way across and let it meet with the pencil in your right hand. There, that's it--that's how the two main characters meet at the end. Does that make sense? Not a lot? OK, let's start over. When she was fifteen, Caroline Winters lost her five year old sister. She disappeared and is never found. The already dysfunctional family falls completely apart. Fifteen years later, Caroline is still lost. Yes, Caroline. Everyone becomes stuck in the past when Ellie disappears. Mother Isabella, and middle sister Madeline. Father drinks himself to death. Then one day Isabella shows Caroline a picture in a magazine. It's Ellie, they both are convinced. Caroline leaves her home in New Orleans and heads to Montana to find her. That's where the photograph is taken. Meanwhile, Amanda Eyre Ward, the author, uses a literary technique similar to something out of Faulkner by switching narrative voice to Agnes Fowler, a librarian in Montana, who finds a match in Johan from Alaskahunks.com, a singles service. She begins a correspondence with him to which the reader is privy. Back and forth from Agnes to Caroline, then sometimes Ms Ward tells the story of Isabella. Faulkner kept up with this switching back and forth by keeping a paper chart tacked to his wall. Ward uses index cards with plot snippets and lays them out as it pleases her. "How to get lost" is a wonderful book to find yourself with on vacation --it is the perfect vacation read. One concept Ward uses in this story is having the reader part of the story. How so? The intertwining of the three stories demands the reader's participation. Ask: Who is Agnes and why is she part of this story? Why does Ellie disappear? And the ending! What does the ending mean? Now there's a real demand of your imagination. Are you up for it? Yes, you will be glad. It's an excellent story!

The story focuses on oldest sister Caroline, a lonely cocktail waitress in New Orleans - afraid to get close to anyone and still feeling guilty about the disappearance of her youngest sister, Ellie. Meanwhile, back in NY her mother and sister Maddy are still trying to deal with the youngest sister's disappearance in their own ways. Since the sister had never been found, the family cannot find closure. Then the mother sees a picture in a magazine that looks like the missing Ellie and wants Caroline to search for her. This is one of those books just makes you want to read on forever. I enjoyed it from the very first page - the wonderful writing, the disfunctional characters who were just as lost as the missing sister, the plot and the way the story unfolded. I will definitely be reading this author's other book.

The Winters sisters lived in a million-dollar house in the suburbs of New York City when they were growing up. Their father, a Wall Street businessman, was an alcoholic, drowning alone each evening in his den. Their mother, ex-model Isabelle, was beautiful but largely co-dependent. With dysfunctional parents, the three girls learned to depend on each other. At night, they would gather in one bed and whisper about the day they'd run away to New Orleans. But then, on the morning they planned their great escape, the youngest sister, 5-year-old Ellie, disappeared. The loss tore the parents apart: Mr. Winters retreated farther into his Scotch and soon died of cirrhosis, and Isabelle retreated farther into herself. The older girls, Caroline and Madeline, grew farther and farther apart. Flash-forward 15 years. There's still no sign of Ellie, and Madeline and Caroline only see each other at Christmas. Madeline is an "upper East Side wife," living in NYC with her investment banker husband and expecting her first child. And Caroline, the narrator of HOW TO BE LOST, did indeed move to New Orleans, and she now works at a tourist bar as a cocktail waitress. Thoughts of Ellie still nag at her; unlike Madeline, who seeks closure, Caroline cannot accept the thought that Ellie may be dead. When she sees a photo in People magazine that was taken in Montana of a young woman who looks alarmingly like Ellie, Caroline decides to head to Missoula and seek out her sister. What she doesn't realize is that the trip she's taking really isn't to find Ellie at all; it's a journey to find Madeline, the sister who never got lost, and to discover who she herself is. I read HOW TO BE LOST in a couple of hours. It's a little book, but rarely can I remember reading a book of any size that had as much heart as this little gem of a novel does. Told in a series of first-person narratives, letters, and flashbacks, HOW TO BE LOST is a quick, engaging, and charming read. The layers of the story are revealed expertly; the characters are revealed just as deftly. Caroline's voice is intelligent and sharply observant, perceptive and surprising. The novel is beautifully written in simple, spare prose, and it is emotionally stirring. The novel's "mystery" reaches a surprising conclusion, and the resolution of the novel is simply lovely. HOW TO BE LOST is the story of one family, ravaged by grief and loss: It's the story of two sisters slowly growing back together again. Just read the first page and try not to read on. Try this little book right away--you'll love it!

This is a read in one sitting kind of book. I loved how the story unfolded and how what seemed to be different storylines tied together. I also liked the different settings of New Orleans, suburban New York, and Montana. The characters were compelling and there were surprising twists in the plot.

You'll be hooked right away! The characters are so real, you become entangled in their lives and can't wait to find out what will happen to each of them. The narrative from different perspectives tells so many stories all at once and enriches each character. And at the end, you'll wish there was more! This book is a great read!