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The Invisible Thread: A Journey Home
The Invisible Thread is a memoir of personal discovery, which will surprise the reader as much as it often surprises the narrator as she unearths events of her early life with a voice of cathartic awareness. The story begins with a young child who is ripped away from a loving home by her biological mother and a mentally ill aunt. As she is driven away, she watches her peaceful life vanish into the distance. Told that her father is dead, they live a life on the lamb, moving ten times in ten years over 4,000 miles. Ensnared in the twists and turns of a disturbing life, she finds herself pitted in a life-and-death struggle, choreographing an impending disaster whose dramatic outcome unwittingly takes her to Ireland and the "Invisible Thread" of her roots. And this is where the story begins, as the protagonist traverses continents and oceans with a relentless determination that will ultimately reveal the shocking truth.
- GenresBook Club
280 pages, Paperback
First published September 25, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 27, 2012
This book was recommended through an Amazon discussion group, "Memoir of someone who is not famous." I browsed the "Look Inside" feature, felt drawn in and ordered it the same day.
Willa Cather said about memoir, "It isn't so much what happened to the person, but what the person makes of what happened. What the writer becomes."
In this story the little girl, Beth, certainly is determined to become! In her early years she is spun like a top with no concern by her caretaker Anna, an unwed mother who gave birth to this first and only child at the age of 45. Certainly her mother struggled with her own inner turmoil (don't we all) but the kid was a fighter who would stop at nothing to save herself.
The story literally takes on a new life when Beth feigns an impending disaster that might actually take place if her mother doesn't wake up and see the danger. At age 13 neighborhood boys threaten to rape her. She's one step ahead of them as she contrives in her mind what the result of the trauma will look like: torn, bruised, tattered, shattered. Her mother is so convinced that this actually happened that she does, indeed, wake up and sends her away to a boarding school in Ireland.
The descriptions of landscapes, smells, sounds, experiences of immigration and meetings with long lost relatives in the West of Ireland brings a truly life-changing experience of another world.
And this is only the beginning. The extremes of desolation, exultation, isolation and integration are so well described and lived in this journey that I can only recommend it very highly indeed.
Willa Cather said about memoir, "It isn't so much what happened to the person, but what the person makes of what happened. What the writer becomes."
In this story the little girl, Beth, certainly is determined to become! In her early years she is spun like a top with no concern by her caretaker Anna, an unwed mother who gave birth to this first and only child at the age of 45. Certainly her mother struggled with her own inner turmoil (don't we all) but the kid was a fighter who would stop at nothing to save herself.
The story literally takes on a new life when Beth feigns an impending disaster that might actually take place if her mother doesn't wake up and see the danger. At age 13 neighborhood boys threaten to rape her. She's one step ahead of them as she contrives in her mind what the result of the trauma will look like: torn, bruised, tattered, shattered. Her mother is so convinced that this actually happened that she does, indeed, wake up and sends her away to a boarding school in Ireland.
The descriptions of landscapes, smells, sounds, experiences of immigration and meetings with long lost relatives in the West of Ireland brings a truly life-changing experience of another world.
And this is only the beginning. The extremes of desolation, exultation, isolation and integration are so well described and lived in this journey that I can only recommend it very highly indeed.
March 9, 2013
I loved this woman's story. Her descriptions of Ireland are so vivid, you can close your eyes and imagine yourself there with her. Elizabeth Wallace is an amazing role model to anyone who feels hopeless. I was disappointed with how the book ended but I can understand why she finished it that way.
August 18, 2014
Lovely story .... writing not amazing, but the story shone through.
March 4, 2016
We all have a story. We all have a history. I love how Elizabeth found herself through finding her story.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews