60. A Thousand Pardons
Rating: ☆☆☆1/2
Recommended by:
Author: Jonathan Dee
Genre: Fiction
214 pages, published March 12, 2013
Reading Format: Book
Summary
A Thousand Pardons tells the story of the Armsteads, who were once a privileged and loving couple, but have now reached a breaking point. Ben, a partner in a prestigious law firm, has become unpredictable at work and withdrawn at home. When Ben’s recklessness takes an alarming turn, everything the Armsteads have built together unravels, swiftly and spectacularly. Forced by necessity to go back to work, Helen finds a job in public relations and relocates with her adopted daughter Sara from their home in upstate New York to an apartment in Manhattan. There, Helen discovers she has a rare gift which becomes indispensable in the world of image control: She can convince arrogant men to publicly admit their mistakes which yields incredible results. Yet redemption is more easily granted in her professional life than in her personal one. As she is confronted with the biggest case of her career, the fallout from her marriage, and Sara’s increasingly distant behavior, Helen must face the limits of accountability and her own capacity for forgiveness.
Quotes
“Have you ever been so bored by yourself that you are literally terrified? That is what it’s like for me every day. That is what it’s like for me sitting here, right now, right this second. It’s like a fucking death sentence, coming back to that house every night. I mean, no offense.”
“No offense?” Helen said. “It’s not that Helen herself is especially boring, I don’t mean that, or that some other woman might be more or less boring. It’s the situation. It’s the setup. It’s not you per se.”
“at some point, forgot to find anything else to want from life, and this had turned her into a boring person, a burden, a part of the upkeep, and she might have floated along mindlessly like that forever […] were it not for the fact that her lack of inner resources had driven her husband insane.”
“People are quick to judge,” she tells him, and “they are quick to condemn, but that’s mostly because their ultimate desire is to forgive.”
“They were at the very bloom of everything for which they felt destined and everything that others would begrudge them.”
“All that survived of his old life was the disgrace of its end, and there was something almost comfortable about that disgrace, about the burden of it; it seemed to be what he’d been courting all along.”
My Take
Silver Bay was the fourth book by Jojo Moyes that I read this year and unfortunately it is the weakest link. It’s not horrible, it’s just a garden variety, pedestrian romance. My recommendation is to check out her other books (After You, One Plus One, and The Girl You Left Behind) before reading Silver Bay.
