Stars Above and Last Chance Love: Friends and Lovers and Mothers

It usually takes me two days to read a book, but now that I'm a new mom, it took me two weeks to read The Magic of Found Objects by Maddie Dawson.  You may recall that this is the novel I started reading while in the hospital.  Even then, when my focus was elsewhere, I knew it'd be good.  Yet once I was home, I didn't think I'd have time to get back to it.  Although the husband gallantly took on the night shift with Charlotte, my days were (and are) filled with feedings, diaper changes, and taking pics of our little Char Bar.  (To be fair, the husband's usually right there beside me despite my efforts to get him to nap.)  But gradually, I realized that I could squeeze in a chapter here and there.  And then I got the bright idea to read when Charlotte is snuggled next to me.  When the husband first saw us like that, he referred to her as my little reading buddy.  

So, The Magic of Found Objects.  It's the story of the fancifully named Phronsie and her quest for love as she untangles her complicated relationship with her mother.  Once upon a time at Woodstock, hippie artist Tenaj (which is just Janet spelled backwards) bewitched straight-arrow farmer Robert.  The result was the free-spirited Phronsie and her painfully prosaic twin brother Hendrix (and yes, he's named for Jimi).  Tenaj and Robert called it quits after just two years, and the twins stayed on the farm with their father.  They didn't see their mother again until they were six, and even then they remained semi-estranged.  This was especially hard on Phronsie. 

Now Phronsie's a New York City publicist in her mid-thirties who's ready for marriage and children.  So when her bestie Judd, whom she's known since kindergarten, proposes, she jumps at the chance.  Who needs romance when you've got a sure thing?  At least that's what Phronsie and Judd tell each other -- and themselves.  But then the universe brings Phronsie a gnome-collecting surfer dude, and despite her engagement, she finds herself hopelessly smitten.  Suddenly, she's torn between her head and her heart, desire and duty -- the very opposites that destroyed her parents.

Dawson paints Phronsie's world as enchanted, a not-quite-grown-up and sometimes sad fairy tale.  Yet despite my love for this bittersweet, quirky yarn, one thing I couldn't quite reconcile was Tenaj leaving her babies.  That part made me ache.

My reading rate may have slowed since becoming a mom.  But my emotional response has only grown stronger.