#94 Vinegar Hill

So what is up with these books? This is another one of Oprah's picks from years ago. I started reading and really was interested in the story line. I kept waiting for Ellen to make her move, to say something about her situation. She was a complicated woman, being progressive enough in the 70s to have a job, but also not advanced enough to talk to her husband, stand up to her in-laws, and take charge of her own happiness.

I am trying to remember this book does come from the 70s. Since I was born in 1974, I don't remember a lot of how it was back then. But I also don't understand how a book just ends without an ending. She finally works herself up to leave her husband, take her children, and get a job farther away. But that all happens in the last 5 pages and you are closing the back cover when she tells her children they are leaving. Hurray for her, I guess. But what about the show down with her husband? What about the in-laws? A fragile mother in-law and husband who has just discovered that he actually likes his family even if he was a abused as a child and can't show it. Seems a shame to not even give him a chance to understand her unhappiness and try to make it better. Maybe he wouldn't even try, maybe he'd just continue living with his parents and ignoring his children. But shouldn't he get an opportunity to weigh in on this decision she is making?

So, at first I was in to this book, reading it very quickly and anxiously awaiting the showdown. The discussion, the arguing, the yelling and screaming, but all I got was passive anger and resentment. I can get that in my own family:) So, still not a fan of Oprah picks. I can't decide if I should just pack up the rest of the ones I have and give them away without reading them? Or do I read them all, making it a mission of mine to find one, just one, Oprah book that I enjoy? It doesn't seem like that much to ask! What do you think?

Next up, #93 Plain Truth by Jodi Picoult.