A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl
by Jean Thompson
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Pub Date Oct 23 2018 | Archive Date Oct 09 2018
Description
From National Book Award finalist and the New York Times bestselling author of The Year We Left Home comes a moving family saga about three generations of women who struggle to find freedom and happiness in their small Midwestern college town.
A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl is a poignant novel about three generations of the Wise family—Evelyn, Laura, and Grace—as they hunt for contentment amid chaos of their own making.
Evelyn set aside her career to marry late, and motherhood never became her. Her daughter Laura felt this acutely and wants desperately to marry, but she soon discovers her husband Gabe to be a man who expects too much of everyone in his life, especially his musician son. Grace has moved out from Laura and Gabe’s house, but can’t seem to live up to her potential—whatever that might be.
In A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl we see these women and their trials, small and large: social slights and heartbreaks; marital disappointments and infidelities; familial dysfunction; mortality. Spanning from World War II to the present, Thompson reveals a matrilineal love story that is so perfectly grounded in our time—a story of three women regressing, stalling, and yes, evolving, over decades. One of the burning questions she asks is: by serving her family, is a woman destined to repeat the mistakes of previous generations, or can she transcend the expectations of a place, and a time? Can she truly be free?
Evelyn, Laura, and Grace are the glue that binds their family together. Tethered to their small Midwestern town—by choice or chance—Jean Thompson seamlessly weaves together the stories of the Wise women with humanity and elegance, through their heartbreaks, setbacks, triumphs, and tragedies.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781501194368 |
| PRICE | $26.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 336 |
Featured Reviews
Patsye P, Reviewer
This was a interesting story told in three voices - three generations of women in the same family. It was an exploration of what society expects of women and what women expect of themselves. Grandmother Evelyn was the most ambitious of the three, yet was constrained by expectations of her marriage and by society in her time. Mother Laura had no real ambition beyond being a wife and mother, and as a depiction of my generation I could relate to the prevailing ideas of the time. Laura tries very hard to be the perfect wife and mother, but her overly demanding husband is rarely satisfied with either her or their children, especially their floundering son. Her husband feels no need for other friends and so Laura has no real female friends to distract her from her constricted life. Grace, the daughter, doesn’t present a very compelling picture of a modern woman. She has moved out of the house but stays mired in a dead-end job and a succession of not very serious guys. She hates the atmosphere at her home and questions her mothers choices, but doesn’t seem able to make her own path. The central questions of a woman’s choices in life spiral through the story. When Laura becomes ill Grace is pulled back into the family life whether she wants it or not, but she can’t fix the dynamics any more the her mother could. I enjoyed the book, but I never was pulled deeply into a relationship with the characters. Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
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