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About the book
When Olivia, wild-haired and headstrong, makes a terrible mistake, she must turn to the person least likely to help -- her mother, Elaine. Motherhood was a role that Elaine never embraced and her best never amounted to much. But now Olivia faces prosecution for a naive connection to a drug deal and she needs Elaine more than ever. As the days count down and Olivia's future hangs in the balance, Elaine must decide just how much she is willing to give for a second chance with her daughter.
Ayelet Waldman's new novel, "Daughter's Keeper," attacks the war on
drugs through its main character: "I think this war you're fighting
isn't against drugs at all," Olivia, facing drug charges, tells a
judge. "I think it's a war against people."
Waldman, however, wisely puts the story in the driver's seat and her
political opinions on the passenger side. At its core is a
redemptive journey taken by Olivia and her mother, Elaine, both of
whom must overcome their strained relationship, the drug charges and
Olivia's pregnancy, which forces Elaine to reconcile her ambivalence
about motherhood.
As a former public defender and a consultant to the Drug Policy
Alliance, a resource center focused on changing drug policy, Waldman
knows firsthand how narcotics, and the government's approach to
them, can rip lives apart.
The author, married to Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael
Chabon ("The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay" 2001), gave up
her career to take care of her children and write. She started with
the "Mommy Track" series of detective novels, and with "Daughter's
Keeper" further establishes herself as a writer in her own right.
Ayelet Waldman, a former public defender who teaches the legal and social implications of America's drug enforcement policies at Berkeley, could have easily written a brainy nonfiction book on the flaws and failures of the so-called war on drugs. Instead, Waldman has poured her knowledge into a gritty novel that portrays the innocent people who are caught in the middle. The two central characters in "Daughter's Keeper" are Elaine Goodman, a Berkeley drugstore owner, and her 22-year-old daughter, Olivia, who suddenly finds herself facing a 10-year prison sentence. Olivia's crime? Taking a few telephone messages for her boyfriend, Jorge, and waiting in the car while he "introduces" some people. Unknown to her, it is Jorge's first methamphetamine deal. Both are arrested; according to federal law, Olivia is considered equally liable. To top it off, she is pregnant and, to Elaine's chagrin, decides to keep the baby. Not everything here works; after her arrest, Olivia abruptly transforms into a quasi Joan of Arc, and the trial scenes can be unrealistically overheated. What keeps you alertly turning the pages, however, is Waldman's incisive portrayal of Elaine as a reserved, indifferent mother who views her relationship with Olivia as a "mandatory minimum sentence" -- until she discovers in her daughter a surprising role model.
"Waldman's passion and affection for her characters shine through."
"Waldman, known for her delightfully lighthearted "Mommy Track" mysteries, here takes a serious turn as she explores the sad effects of the Government's mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines on a middle-class California family. Elaine is a single mother whose relationship with her rebellious, difficult daughter Olivia is an emotional minefield. When Olivia, who is in the early stages of pregnancy, is arrested for selling drugs-although all she did was drive her boyfriend, an illegal Mexican immigrant, to meet his contact-both women come face to face with the realities of the law, which gives the judge little leeway in handing down a sentence. During Olivia's arrest, arraignment and trial, and especially after the birth of her granddaughter, Elaine realizes that she has been given a second chance to forge a loving connection with Olivia. Although Waldman is clearly no fan of mandatory minimums, she follows the dictates of every good writing teacher by showing, not telling, the readers the results of this misguided law. A good choice for all fiction collections."
"Compelling...a story brimming with hope and second chances." (3 stars out of 4). "A gritty novel...keeps you alertly turning the pages."
"A true pleasure."
"A page turner."
"Memorable...compelling."
"Powerful and provocative."
"A warm and funny novel."
"A powerhouse novel of complex emotions so compelling that when I finished the book, I started over again." "Ayelet Waldman has brought the war on drugs home, and has shown us just how close to home it can come. Her mother and daughter reminded me of the women I most love and for whom I hold the greatest fear, those women and girls who fight tooth and nail, when their best hope lies in supporting each other. She looks past headlines and into the heart. What she finds there is hope for us all."
"Waldman shapes outrage into a story that's always compelling, always compassionate-always so close to real that it feels like nonfiction."
"Be prepared to stay up all night. Daughter's Keeper is a zippily intelligent and emotionally charged peephole into the peculiar politics that govern motherhood and the American legal system."
"Smart and involving, Daughter's Keeper is a story of second chances, of reclaiming what has been lost, and of finding your way through the darkness and into the light."
"A riveting story, as generous as it is large; Waldman presents a tale that unfolds layer by layer, revealing the complexities of sacrifice and regret, along side that ultimate desire to DO RIGHT, in this triumph of mother-daughter love."
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