Is it a mystery or three personal narratives? It could be both. It does not matter.
Winthrop is very good natural writer. Immediately you are an interested participant in the month of a young girl’s life as seen through both her own eyes and those of her parents.
Belle stopped talking nine months ago. Her parents Wilson and Ruth are agonizing over why and what to do. All three are frozen in their inability to move forward.
Belle wants to speak again, but it has been so long that she doesn’t know how to start. Ruth is horrified by her inability to reach Belle. Wilson is shrinking into a void of loss. He can aid neither his wife nor daughter.
We don’t know what precipitated Belle’s silence. We are shown hints that could quantify her need for control and self preservation, but none so traumatic nor out of the ordinary as to invoke a psychotic episode of this magnatude.
The book is equal parts anticipation of resolution and witnessing daily machinations within the Carter family.
How are they coping with this extraordinary set of circumstances? What, if anything, can be achieved with regard to the inexplicable self-imposed exile of an 11-year-old girl? Was there a trauma that went unrecognized? How does one extricate oneself from a seemingly paralyzing behavioral pattern?
Winthrop makes you a part of these questions. I caught myself speeding ahead for answers when I should have been appreciating her writing. A mystery and a reflective tome. Hard to be both, but Winthrop manages quite well.
I highly recommend this book, especially if you have a head cold. It takes your mind off your own snivelling misery nicely.