Saturday, August 13, 2011

Outside The Ordinary World - a review


As a child, growing up in a Seventh Day Adventist family in California, Sylvia is asked to be complicit in hiding her mother's affair. She vows never to become her mother, but then, just when her husband is engrossed in a major home renovation project, she meets Tai...

Outside the Ordinary World, the debut novel of Dori Ostermiller, explores the complexity of mother-daughter relationships and how secrets can have an impact down generations. It looks at the devastating power of unexpected attraction in middle-age and above all it examines the burden of guilt; marital guilt, family guilt and religious guilt.

Outside the Ordinary World is literary women's fiction and as such is more character than plot-driven. Dori Ostermiller writes beautiful prose which is fluid and sensory, with evocative description which occasionally moves into dark areas. The story switches effortlessly between California in the 1970's, when Sylvia and her sister Ali were growing up, and New England of the present day, where Sylvia and her husband Nathan are raising their own daughters.

I absolutely loved it and will certainly be looking out for future books by Dori Ostermiller.

(Thanks to MIRA for giving me the opportunity to review this book, which is released on 17 August)

5 comments:

Em said...

Lovely review! The cover design looks amazing, and the story sounds really interesting. And on top of that, you mention Maggie O'Farrell in the same breath... mmm, can't wait to read this one :)

Cathy said...

Welcome, Em. I'm a huge fan of Maggie O'Farrell, so the comparison I made on Twitter is high praise. I agree that the cover is stunning, it would certainly make me want to pick up the book in a shop.

Kath said...

I'm going to check this out on the basis of your excellent review, Cathy. Otherwise it might not have made my radar. Thanks!

Miriam Drori said...

Hi Cathy. I just gave you a friendly award. Visit my blog to claim it.

Cathy said...

Kath, I hope you will enjoy it.

Miriam, thank you, will pop over to graciously accept :)