The Properties of Water

by Ann Hood

Book Overview

Dedicated wife and mother Josie Hunter finds her seemingly idyllic life threatened by a random act of violence, the return of her estranged older sister, and the emergence of an attractive childhood... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 038547279X
• ISBN13: 9780385472791
• Release Date: June 1995
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 275 Pages
• Weight: 1.24 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Sparkling pool of rebirth

The true beauty of life is the way if ebbs and flows like a river, a tiny pebble in its path can take the water on a new glorious course and where it goes no one knows. In her sixth novel Ann Hood displays her magic touch for creating people and places that haunt the reader for a long time. I have noticed the melancholic tone in her books, the sad pangs and situations where people are hurt emotionally make up big chunks of her books but she doesn't forget to write in some hard earned salvation to their problems, that is also why I enjoy her novels. The polluted town of East Essex, Rhode Island is a place that Josie Jericho Hunter calls home. A mother of two, teenage Maggie and young Kate, wife to a mall store manager Will, she cannot imagine her life in any other place, no matter how much more exotic. She lives near a polluter river by a soap making factory and her days pass by as she business herself cutting out the latest recipes for enchiladas from cooking magazines, tends to her children's finicky wants, plays the doting wife and mother, and visits her parents house that is near by. With her father's recent Alzheimer's and her mothers plans to sell her childhood home Josie is thrown in for a loop. Her comfort zone is being stripped away to expose an empty vacant lot that she will have to cushion and fill up on her own in order to fill the growing gap in her heart. Unexpectedly her sister Michaela returns home from the other coast, the hippy child with long hair and mismatched clothing, she brings back bitter memories of Josie's childhood as the usually independent sister is back with her secrets and no one knows why but they know that sometimes is brewing under her cool demeanor. Josie starts to forget what makes her happy. She is lost in the world of pleasing others, trying to satisfy her husband and his wondering eyes, she slowly loses her magic over him when she gets mugged and no one believes her. Changed and saddened she forgets to pick up her kids form work, to cook dinner, she wonders around the town unable to help anyone and especially herself. Josie must also face the fact that her husband might no longer love her and what it means to her and her family. The ordeals she went though were an intense experience especially with her children involved. As past family secret are slowly starting to spill up, the water from the river starts rising above the banks and floods the city over. Together the family must gather the courage to help the flood victims and to patch up their own problems and for once to realize that people are more similar than different. This book was so much more, the people and things going on made my head spin and made for an incredibly fast read, I couldn't tear myself away and read this in two sittings but few loose ends were untied and I wished that certain characters had more of a resolution. This said I am extremely pleased for having found this book as it was an enriching experience, an Ann Hood experience