Summary
Marissa is expecting her first child and fixated on securing the same cradle she was once rocked in for her own baby. But her mother, Caroline, disappeared when Marissa was a teenager, and the treasured cradle mysteriously vanished shortly thereafter. Marissa’s husband, Matthew, kindly agrees to try to track down the cradle, which naturally means finding Caroline as well.
In another family, Adam has just joined the Marines and is off to Iraq. His mother, Renee, is terrified of losing him. She’s furious at Adam for enlisting and at her husband for being so mild-mannered about it all. To further complicate matters, Renee is troubled by the resurfacing of secrets she buried long ago; the memory of her first love, killed in Vietnam, and the son she gave up at birth.
Matt’s search for the cradle takes him through the Midwest. This provides an introduction to a host of oddball characters who’ve been part of Caroline’s life in the intervening years. When he finds the cradle, he also finds an unloved little boy, who will one day reunite a family adrift. A lovely debut novel, The Cradle is an astonishingly spare tale of feeling lost in the world, and the simple, momentous acts of love that bring people home. -via Goodreads
My Thoughts
The Cradle is the first book I have read from Author Patrick Somerville. It is one of the books I discovered at a College Book Fair I attended about two years ago. I bought it for $0.50- what a steal! Have I ever mentioned how much I love book fairs and book sales? Well, I do. I bought about 8 books that day and I started to read each one- without finishing them. I will admit, I probably have a whole shelf full of books I have half read.
With the exception of baby updates and work, I have decided to take a break from most forms of technology. This has freed up quite a lot of time and I am now on my third book in four days. While my plan was to spend more time outside, it has been raining the past few days. Which, makes it perfect weather for staying in and reading.
The Cradle is a very easy read and it was enjoyable.
It is far from being one of my favorites, but it wasn’t as though I felt I wasted time by reading it. I usually have a hard time with books (and films for that matter), that go back and forth in time. That wasn’t the case this time. It all flowed together quite nicely. Although you could guess how the characters intertwined right from the start, your predictions get confirmed about halfway through. It is easy to like many of the characters. There were even a few parts in which it made me laugh out loud.
Overall, I found the entire book predictable. However, you still wanted to read it to see how the author has it it all play out. I will be returning the book to its place in a book fair. Or, a bookstore in exchange for another book to read. With this being said, I would definitely read another Somerville book in the future, for I highly enjoyed this one.
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