Karen Brichoux, Falling into the World

Falling into the World

Karen Brichoux

NAL, November 2006, $12.95

ISBN: 0451218434

Her dreams ended six years ago with the car accident that killed her mom and turned her dad into a paraplegic. Six years ago Augustina Fletcher was planning to go to an out of state graduate school; those dreams are dead, along with her mother whom she loved and still misses. However, someone had to stay home in Missouri to care for her father and raise her younger sister Saphi. Though a teen at the time of the tragedy, Augustina did her best, but Saphi ran away anyway.

In her twenties, Augustina feels old and tired, as responsibility cripples her. Her salvation is routines and the nearby Mississippi River, which enables her to fantasize about floating away from her world. Now Saphi is back, but Augustina resents her fleeing while dumping all the work on her. She wonders if marriage to Colton is the right thing for her, especially since she cannot stand his bossy mom and is not sure she loves him. Augustina considers just leaving town to let Saphi deal with responsibility, not yet aware that her sister is a widow still in mourning.

This is an insightful character study of a young woman who feels the weight of responsibly has caused her essence to vanish, and to get it back she feels she must leave in order to find her own world, but that is no option for those left behind. Augustina is as deep a character as any recent novel has produced, because the audience knows her as well as they know themselves. Her feelings of trapped hopelessness and despair with no future, let alone present though only in her twenties, make for a deep somewhat maudlin tale that will have readers comparing their life situations to those of Augustina.