Jericho

Jericho is fiction and tells two parallel stories set in different times. One of the stories is about a young girl named Angela and the other is about Arminda, her great-grandmother. The story begins when Angela finds out that she's spending several weeks of summer vacation at her grandmother's house in a small and remote town. There she is expected to help with and relieve her grandmother of the responsibility of caring for her great-grandmother, Grand Min. Angela is not very happy about this because Grand Min lives in the past and can't even remember Angela's name. Min frets daily because she is the only one from her generation in the family still living and she feels abandoned, even though her daughter cares for her faithfully. Alternating with Angela's story are Min's memories of her girlhood and growing up in a time long gone. In their parallel stories, Angela and Min both experience love, loss, and unwanted feelings of responsibility. Their personalities and feelings are quite similar, though Min's life had more disappointments. Angela, who is quite insecure, has often wanted to see an image of the person she will one day become. She sees this one-day in a photograph she finds in the attic of Min as a young woman. Jericho ends with both Min and Angela finding peace: Min through death and returning to her family, and Angela through the comfort in knowing that she will turn out all right. Reading Jericho was really a magical experience for me. I found both Angela and Min's stories very touching. Reading about Min brought tears to my eyes because so many things in her life went wrong in her life and she was so timid and naive. Her mother died, her sister ran away, and her other sister stole the man she hoped to marry. From Min I learned so much: that sometimes things don't work out and you have to accept them as they are. The author portrayed Angela and Min's feelings very well and I thought that how she brought them together with the photograph was perfect. I loved this book and I think that every girl would find a bit of meaning between its pages. Jericho is a beautifully written and emotional story that I like to think changed my life. It should be part of everyone's library.

I read this book quite a while ago, yet it has stayed in my mind and heart. The language is simple and poetic. Since the story has little action, it probably would appeal to the quieter more reflective child or teenager. Anyone who has a family member who is getting forgetful would be able to understand the main character's ambivalent feelings toward her great-grandmother. This gem of a book can be enjoyed by adults as well as children. It's a treasure!