This is a book about a woman who has an adulterous affair with a Monk because she is bored with her life. This is a typical midlife crisis story, only it has a woman as the one that gets itchy feet and not the man. There are a number of other things going on in the story, our hero’s mother cuts off her finger. Her father died a tragic death in her childhood that she has always blamed herself for. There is this mysterious bond between the older women of her life and this strange monastery that makes a living by weaving fishnets, which is as good a way as any for the monks to pass the time. But the central story is that she just can’t stand having so dull a life. She has a rich and prosperous husband, her daughter is off in college, she is a semi-success artist, but all that is so boring. So when her mother lopes off one of her finger, it is a good chance for her to sew some wild oats.
But like the good wife in The Bridges of Madison County, she can have an affair and think about running off into the sunset, but she can’t actually do any real running. She has her summer of love and heads back home, a more mature and fulfilled woman, her husband glad to have her back and life, such as it is, goes on.
This is a fairy tale where there are no consequences to the hero’s actions. Everything was set into place by someone else, she just happen to be there at the time. Her father’s death, her mother’s madness, the monk’s crisis of faith, and even her own midlife crisis seems to be hidden from her so that it only comes out in her paintings. There are a lot of characters here and they all seem busy enough in their lives. It just didn’t feel real to me, maybe I just don’t have estrogen to appreciate this story.
There was USA Network movie made of this book, but I haven’t seen it. It stars Kim Basinger and Alex Carter. Maybe I would like it better if it only took a couple of hours to tell and not the nine or ten that I listened to.
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