Karyn Witmer A Simple Gift

A Simple Gift

Karyn Witmer

Dell, Sep 2006

ISBN: 0739460498

In Larkin, Kansas Avery and Mike Montgomery lived a perfect life raising their teenage daughter Fiona; that is until Fiona, inexplicably, ran away from home to tour with her boyfriend's band eighteen months ago. The Montgomery's remain shocked and shattered as they thought their daughter was adjusted and contented with plans for college; Mike is also angry that his daughter threw it all away.

Still despondent, Avery is in the checkout line at the local supermarket when working another register is Fiona. The mother wants to hold her daughter, but fears Fiona will flee. Still Avery needs to know why Avery left and why she failed to tell them she came home. Fiona cannot turn to her parents especially her father as she feels she has failed them; ergo she cannot reveal secrets that are killing her. While Mike remains iron in his resolute ire, Avery seeks to bring her two loved ones back together into the loving family they once were.

This is one of the year's best family dramas as Avery (and the audience) learn that love is not THE SIMPLE GIFT of one giving their heart to another. Relationships are so much more complex with her daughter pulling on her in one direction and her husband in the other. The trio is deep protagonists so that readers can easily see themselves in similar situations. Karyn Witmer makes a superb case that love isn't so grand if people fail need to work at nurturing it.

Harriet Klausner