A review by indreni
Take What You Need by Idra Novey

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I greatly enjoyed this book--in fact, it felt meaningful to me and genuinely made me feel things, in a way that many contemporary novels don't. I loved the setting (Allegheny Mts of western PA), as I drove right through that area last fall. I am a fan of Indra Novey's writing in general. Her stories are always challenging, beautifully-written, very human, and unique. My only complaints was that I felt Leah was an uptight snob. To be so afraid of the people in the town you spent your early years in...she seemed to suspect anyone and everyone was going to shoot her and her family in cold blood in that part of the country!! My other complaint is that I feel the people in the town were a bit stereotyped. Surely not *everyone* is a racist/addict/gun-loving/trigger-happy/mean just because they live in a poor area...but perhaps I am being naive. Other than those two things, I really loved this story. 

Also, Jean is a tough cookie--anyone who has fought self-doubt to stubbornly going on making art will relate to her, I think--and a tough cookie to survive in that town all those years, a town she never left, a town (and a father, and a husband) that she refused to let make her mean. Go, Jean.