David Baldacci is best known for his suspense novels, but in “Wish You Well,” he takes a departure from his normal genre and gives us a literary look into the heart and soul of the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia in the 1940’s.
Louisa Mae Cardinal, who prefers to be called Lou, is the twelve-year-old daughter of Jack Cardinal, a celebrated novelist. She wants to be just like him and spends hours scribbling in her own notebook. But despite Jack’s fame, he doesn’t have the income to support his family, and wants to move to California to become a screen writer.
Amanda, Lou’s mother, wants Jack to stay true to his passions. She encourages him to return to his roots, and suggests that they move to Virginia, where he was raised. In the midst of a heated argument on the subject, Jack swerves to miss a man standing alongside the road, and the car the Cardinals are riding in goes down an embankment, killing Jack and wounding Amanda, but not harming Lou or her little brother Oz. Amanda is in a catatonic state as a result, which Lou feels is at least partially deserved, as she blames her mother for her father’s death.
The only remaining relative to take the children in is Louisa, Lou’s great-grandmother and the woman for whom Lou was named. She runs a farm in the Virginia mountains, and while she’s not rich by any means, she manages to get along fine with her crops and the occasional slaughter of an animal. It’s a life completely different from any that Lou and Oz have known before, but Lou throws herself into the work as a welcome escape from her own thoughts and feelings of guilt over what happened to her parents.
As the story progresses, we see Lou come to terms with herself as she learns to love the mountains as much as Louisa does, and we see her defend her home and her family against almost overwhelming odds.
There was a bit of language in this book, but nothing I found offensive. My one criticism would be that the characters would often go for some time without checking in on Amanda, who was bedridden and catatonic, yet still required quite a bit of looking after. Her care was mentioned from time to time, but in reality, such an undertaking would be quite a bit more time-consuming than was shown in the book, and I found that part a little far-fetched. Beyond that, I greatly enjoyed the story and recommend it.
(This book was published in 2000 by Warner Books.)
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