Careless
Robertson, DeborahA story of grief and the slow healing of four people whose lives become interwoven. Eight year old Pearl is the only survivor of a playground shooting where one of the seven victims is her young brother. Lily is Pearl's mother and they both struggle to come to terms with the tragedy. Sonia is a grieving widow of a furniture designer; she wants to assemble a retrospective collection of her husband's work. Adam is an avant-garde sculptor who rents outs Sonia's now vacant studio - he experiences some notoriety when he displays a cast of a young girl who died of a heroin overdose. All their lives become entangled in ways that could not have been foreseen. [Larger font]
Comments from Groups
We all thoroughly enjoyed this book. Brilliantly written. Discussed the main characters at length - likeable Pearl to the unlikeable Adam. Auckland 045 ...a bit depressing and frustrating, made for good discussion though. Dannevirke 003All enjoyed the book. Beautifully written. Auckland 050Good read and good discussion. Ending a bit dissatisfying. Nelson 027This is a must read for any group. We all loved it. Auckland 155
Pages
293
293
Year
2006
2006
Reviews
05-09-2022
The vast majority of members really enjoyed this book, considering it well-written and easy to read, whilst exploring the interesting concept of how often we are "careless" of others feelings, lives, relationships etc.
05-09-2022
This book had a mixed reaction in our group and we found some aspects pretty graphic and unpleasant, especially Adam's art works. Some found the author had made the story structure a bit confusing and took a bit to get into it. We had a huge reaction to Pearl's hardships, and found Sonia to be a rather sad personality. Not one of our favourite books but an interesting take on the abuse inflicted on children and women in all societies.
05-09-2022
Interesting discussion on the characters. Book kept interest up - we talked about how the experience in his childhood affected his character and behaviour in later life.
05-09-2022
Mixed feelings. Some read it and found it interesting. Others didn't want to read about a rather depressing subject.
05-09-2022
A book that we all read and which gave rise to some thoughtful discussion. However the ending was less satisfying, leaving unanswered questions.
05-09-2022
We all found this a difficult read, there were some good characters but too many individual stories in one book. The group felt there was no resolution and the ending was disappointing as it didn't seem to connect with the rest of the book. Would have liked to read more about the accident at the beginning of the book.
05-09-2022
A lot of us didn't enjoy it and thought the end was a let down - there were too many characters and they didn't come together in the end as they should have.
05-09-2022
The group enjoyed the book on the whole. One or two felt it was a little unusual but well-written and kept one's attention until the end.
05-09-2022
This was split - half liked it and half didn't. We did have a good discussion and meeting though.