Book review: 'Cloud' reveals what shapes three women | Books - NewsOK.com

Do you ever feel like you're floating along in life? And reflecting on those life events that could have changed your trajectory?

"A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl" by Jean Thompson (Simon & Schuster, 336 pages, in stores Tuesday)

Maybe somewhat wondering what if you had chosen differently, but knowing that the past doesn't change, and decisions are already made. This book is about those feelings, making the best of some unhappiness — and the end-of-life reflections for three generations of women in a family.

The book begins as the first woman, Evelyn, is under hospice care, and the book takes us through memories that define her adult life. During the war (World War II), she was able to work as a college history instructor, though after the troops returned, her teaching load was reduced as “full-time” professors returned. We see her memories of meeting her husband, their awkward courtship and why she decides to accept his proposal.

Her daughter, Laura, tends her childhood home and her mother's bedside during this time, while managing her own tough household and stern husband. While wondering why things are "just so" at her mother's house, and reflecting on her childhood, Laura's thoughts also wander to the harder parts of parenting her own children. In the year that follows Evelyn's death, Laura's life also takes a turn down a difficult road. She comes to terms with this change much quicker than her husband and children. And we see how her decisions as a young adult affected her later in life, as well.

Laura's daughter Grace, a vegan, part-time yoga instructor, thinks her mom does too much for her brother and father. Grace keeps telling her to take a vacation, to leave the boys to fend for themselves.

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Source: NewsOK.com