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Infinite Sum
Art and math blend in this beautifully written story of healing and forgiveness. Seldom does a reader have the pleasure of getting to know a character and her family, past and present, as well as one does the charming, but disturbed, Sylvia in the poetically written Infinite Sum. I found myself yearning for her healing as desperately as she and her unfailingly patient husband did through all the ups and downs, twists and turns of the intricate plot.
222 pages, Paperback
Published July 1, 2016
About the author
Sheila Deeth
85 books191 followersSheila Deeth is an English American, Catholic Protestant, mathematician writer and editor, author of contemporary novels - Divide by Zero and Infinite Sum from Indigo Sea Press - the Five Minute Bible Story Series from Cape Arago Press, Tails of Mystery from Linkville Press, and several spiritual speculative novellas and short stories.
Sheila is a prolific reader and her book reviews are published on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powells, Goodreads, and Librarything, as well as on her blog at http://sheiladeeth.blogspot.com
Find out more at http://about.me/sheiladeeth
Sheila is a prolific reader and her book reviews are published on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Powells, Goodreads, and Librarything, as well as on her blog at http://sheiladeeth.blogspot.com
Find out more at http://about.me/sheiladeeth
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 22, 2016
This novel is about Sylvia (last name?), an artist--a married woman with children, a former mathematician, who is troubled, off-kilter. Her therapist has advised Sylvia to sift through her drawings and paintings, beginning in childhood to find clues to her depression that has resurfaced after the first episode ten years previous.
What can be learned from Sylvia's art? It seems that even as a child she was skilled at hiding her feelings behind symbols and crayoned metaphors. Looking at the drawings and paintings, Sylvia reaches back in time for memories from childhood and early teen years. But how reliable is her memory? Does she learn anything from her artworks?
As a child, Sylvia seems clueless about her situation and her needs. She feels loneliness but has no insight-- just draws images with pencils and crayons to represent people and landscapes in her life. The reader soon sees that Sylvia's cluelessness is a result of her family's failures to respond to her in loving ways and meet her needs. Her mother is cold, her father detached, and her siblings unkind. There is little or no playfulness in this family, and no outpourings of affection. Sylvia does have a close relationship with her grandfather, however, whose farm the family lives on until Sylvia is about ten years old.
Unexplained to Sylvia, the immediate family moves away from the farm and grandparents and do not return for visits. This is a heartbreak and shock for Sylvia, suddenly facing the reality of a new home and school in a strange new town, oddly named Paradise.
What is the basic trauma encased in those years that still haunts grownup Sylvia and stifles her relationship with husband and three sons? The mystery unfolds, a chapter a time--each chapter begins with a detailed description of a piece of Sylvia's art and the memories each brings forth.
Sheila Deeth has an amazing repertoire of colorful, sensory language to describe the body of Sylvia's artworks. The author writes with imagery about paintings and paints a dramatic story with words, bringing Sylvia to life on the pages. The scenes in the story are vividly described, often in an impressionistic way, whereby I sometimes wasn't sure what I was supposed to see. This lyrical, inchoate style adds to the mystery, pointing the way toward some sort of childhood abuse.
Past midway in the book, an incident regarding a "Guardian Angel Cat" appears, and I felt it was superimposed on a story that already had its own trajectory. Why was this ghostly cat needed? But in the end, this elusive creature that figures into Sylvia's art contributes to the satisfying resolution of the story.
What can be learned from Sylvia's art? It seems that even as a child she was skilled at hiding her feelings behind symbols and crayoned metaphors. Looking at the drawings and paintings, Sylvia reaches back in time for memories from childhood and early teen years. But how reliable is her memory? Does she learn anything from her artworks?
As a child, Sylvia seems clueless about her situation and her needs. She feels loneliness but has no insight-- just draws images with pencils and crayons to represent people and landscapes in her life. The reader soon sees that Sylvia's cluelessness is a result of her family's failures to respond to her in loving ways and meet her needs. Her mother is cold, her father detached, and her siblings unkind. There is little or no playfulness in this family, and no outpourings of affection. Sylvia does have a close relationship with her grandfather, however, whose farm the family lives on until Sylvia is about ten years old.
Unexplained to Sylvia, the immediate family moves away from the farm and grandparents and do not return for visits. This is a heartbreak and shock for Sylvia, suddenly facing the reality of a new home and school in a strange new town, oddly named Paradise.
What is the basic trauma encased in those years that still haunts grownup Sylvia and stifles her relationship with husband and three sons? The mystery unfolds, a chapter a time--each chapter begins with a detailed description of a piece of Sylvia's art and the memories each brings forth.
Sheila Deeth has an amazing repertoire of colorful, sensory language to describe the body of Sylvia's artworks. The author writes with imagery about paintings and paints a dramatic story with words, bringing Sylvia to life on the pages. The scenes in the story are vividly described, often in an impressionistic way, whereby I sometimes wasn't sure what I was supposed to see. This lyrical, inchoate style adds to the mystery, pointing the way toward some sort of childhood abuse.
Past midway in the book, an incident regarding a "Guardian Angel Cat" appears, and I felt it was superimposed on a story that already had its own trajectory. Why was this ghostly cat needed? But in the end, this elusive creature that figures into Sylvia's art contributes to the satisfying resolution of the story.
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