Rise and Shine by Anna Quindlen Review
February 15th, 2007 by admin
This book was released in its hardcover edition in August of 2006. The paperback edition of it will be available starting April 24, 2007.
Meghan and Bridget are the two main characters in the book but it is told in narrative fashion by Bridget. She is in her early 40’s, is working at a women’s shelter in the Bronx in New York City, isn’t married but has been seeing a man for the past for years who is more than 20 years older than she is, has a close relationship with her older sister Meghan and her husband Evan, and is like a second Mom to Meghan and Evan’s son Leo.
Meghan and Bridget formed their tight bond with each other as children when their parents died and they went to live with their Aunt and Uncle who raised them with a lot of love.
Meghan seems to have it all, and she does. She has a great career as a morning talk show host, a husband who loves her, and a great son. Then in a few short moments everything seems to cave in around it. She is doing an interview with a famous guy who has left his wife to be with the surrogate mother they hired to carry their baby. When the show goes to commercial break, Meghan mutters two expletives about the guy that end up on the air because her microphone had not been turned off. Meghan just did a big “no, no” by saying words on National Television that are of the type that are supposed to be “bleeped out.”
To me, that is one of the most ironic things in the whole book. The world we live in today is filled with violence, death, and tragedy; yet if a newscaster swears on the air in the United States it is a big problem and gets a lot of people’s underwear all tied up in knots (metaphorically speaking). The truth is that most 10 year olds have probably hear swear words worse than the ones the character in the book lets fly, either in school, from friends, during an unguarded moment from a parent (hitting your thumb with a hammer is a moment that comes to mind because that was the one time I heard my Mom let loose with a long string of swear words), or from movies that shouldn’t be watching. Yet the powers that govern television in the United States spend a lot of time worrying about whether or not someone has violated morality standards.
In the book, as expected, Meghan is relieved of her on air duties while the FCC investigates and decides what it deems to be a suitable punishment. Meghan was supposed to take a vacation in the next week or so anyway so she decides to leave for that vacation early and takes herself off to a remote part of Jamiaca. We find out later that Meghan finding out her husband is leaving her may have been part of the reason those swear words came out of her mouth.
Meghan cuts herself off from the world after the “incident” including from Bridget who is beside herself with worry because it takes several days for her to get any contact with Meghan, and then it is only through a fax.
Then the plotline of the book starts to lag. The only thing that kept me engaged in the book was Ms. Quindlen’s writing which is phenomenal. She is an excellent writer. The middle of the book spends a lot of time with Bridget at her job and trying to help make a difference for the women who come to her shelter while also showing the realities of how many of those women end up back with their abusive husbands or boyfriends, back doing drugs, or just struggling to live in the projects where violence is as much a part of everyday life as waking up and seeing the sun rise is for some people. It doesn’t “sugar coat” things, nor does it exploit them either.
Bridget eventually goes to visit Meghan in Jamica because Meghan refuses to come home. Bridget is upset with her sister and let her know that it is not fair to her son to be hiding out while he has to deal with his parents breaking up and his Mom falling from her job with disgrace. In one poignant moment during Bridget’s visit to Meghan, when Meghan says that Bridget should tell her son to come visit her so they can talk, Bridget tell her that Leo (Meghan’s) son gets to be the child and she needs to be the grownup.
In the 75 pages or so, the story picks up again. Bridget gets surprising personal news and Meghan does come back to New York, but suddenly.
I’m going to recommend the book, but only because of its writing, not because of the storyline which I think is a little weak. The writing is good enough though to warrant getting the book and reading it.
My rating (0-10 smilies): 5 ☻☻☻☻☻☺☺☺☺☺