A review by christinam
Alternative Remedies for Loss by Joanna Cantor

reflective sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

CW: loss of a parent, drug use 

I'm lukewarm on this one. I could have DNF'd but I was curious how it was going to end. 

Only four months after her mother's death, everyone in Olivia's family seems ready to move on. Her brothers are settled comfortably in careers and families of their own; her father has already started to date again, inviting a woman named June on a family trip. But, as Olivia struggles to get her life back on track without her mom, she discovers a secret romantic correspondence her mother had with a man who signed each letter “F.” Her journey to find F's identity, leads Olivia to an ashram in rural India, on a quest that will reconfigure everything Olivia thought she knew about her family. 

The concept is interesting. Do we know our parents as well as we think we do? How does the loss of a loved one and grief affect a family and change/strain relationships? And like the title of the book suggests, everyone has their own remedy for processing grief and loss. Great ideas but I just didn't enjoy the execution. 

My other issue with this book is that we really only get the tourist-oriented side of India. I recognize that Olivia is a tourist. But when I think of how integral India has been in other stories (languages, religions, food, climate, geography etc) there wasn't much here at all. And as you can see in the second picture, the framing. Why use words like "weird" and "strange" that are known to have negative connotations? I should have DNF'd there but I trudged on. Finally, the few interactions that Oliva does have outside of tourist-oriented India, tend to be negative learning. Based on the framing what does that suggest about other parts of India? The parts that aren't tourist-oriented? 

Although I didn't particularly enjoy the book, it gave me lots to think about. Books like this usually lead to an exercise in informal dialectics in my house and I wouldn't have it any other way.