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Take What You Need by Idra Novey - 3.5* - My Review

This book tells the story of two women: Jean and her stepdaughter Leah. Jean is a sculptor in her sixties living in rural Appalachia who creates large metal sculptures from industrial scraps. Leah is a web editor and young mother living in New York who moved to the city to make a clean break from her rural childhood. Jean’s home is full of her giant sculptures, and a young man named Elliott has been helping her. The story is told in alternating perspectives between Jean and Leah. It is a book about family, art, and the urban-rural political divisions. I enjoyed Jean’s story more than Leah’s, and there is something about this book that feels incomplete, like it is just skimming the surface. The characters’ motivations are only vaguely defined. I think it could have flowed better, but I liked it enough to read another book by this author.

3.5