Songs Without Words

I just finished reading this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. Sure there's tons of introspection and depression themes in it, but hey...that's part of life and certainly more of life for some people most days. All the characters interested me, all were fleshed-out and all were VERY HUMAN! The only thing I wish would have been written more of was how Lauren, the daughter who made a suicide attempt got so depressed. We got many scenes of her in therapy after the fact, but never received a clue as to HOW she became so depressed. It wasn't her just pining away for a boy who didn't pay her any attention that caused it...so why? Anyhow, I highly recommend this book!

This book was excellent... it was compelling and very true to life. Packer dealt with a touchy subject well.

Songs without words covers the emotional terrain between two friends, Liz now a mother, and her bohemian, childhood friend Sarabeth. It is refreshing to read about the complexities of female friendships that are often beleaguered by past traumas and dysfunctional let downs. As most women can tell you, female friendships - especially lifetime ones - can be as complicated as a marriage. Packer's characters flesh out these complications and are nuanced and believable. The listener is drawn into this friendship drama in the aftermath of a crisis involving Liz's teenage daughter. Liz is disappointed and let down by Sarabeth's reluctance to lend true support. The psychological pain of the characters helps to keep listeners riveted. Narrator Cassandra Campbell is an actress with considerable experience with audiobooks and voice-over work. Her experience shows, and she outshines better known actors who aren't necessarily suited for audiobook work. Her voice, and the characters they imbue, will keep listeners hanging on until the very last word.

This novel really caught me up and had me living the lives of the characters. It's as gorgeously detailed and exact as a Vermeer, where the painter has so precisely caught the color of the light that you understand more about what it means to be alive. Each of the characters becomes very real in their inner as well as their outer lives. In the process of inhabiting their struggles as well as their pleasures, you get the chance to experience what it's like to be a human being who may be quite different from you, in a way that enlarges your sympathies. It's a work of literature, but it feels more like a work of life. Ann Packer here wrestles with moral questions as urgent as those in The Dive from Clausen's Pier, but with a grander and more richly complex architecture. She brilliantly contrasts the daily with the horrific, the ordinary with the nightmarish. Among other things, and not the least of its gifts, this book could literally save lives. I'd give it to anyone I know who struggles with depression or whose friends/family have emotional troubles. It provides a visceral education in how a person might make it through the darkest possible times. What the path out could look like. I love that the beauty of the writing never becomes about showing off - Ann Packer is much more concerned with exactly capturing the hard dilemmas of life. What do we owe the people we love? What if we can't deliver that? How can we help each other and ourselves? How can we heal from the ferocious blows life deals us? A beautiful and deeply rewarding book.