Blind Faith (review)

Liz is saddened when her grandmother, Bunny, dies, but her mother is inconsolable: Bunny had been her best friend, her workmate, and the light of her life, to the point where fifteen-year-old Liz has felt invisible to her own mother. In her distress, Liz's mother finds solace in a local Spiritualist church that promises contact with loved ones who've passed on, a decision that appalls Liz's nonbeliever father. Meanwhile, Liz is becoming friendly with kids who've just moved in across the street, eight-year-old Courtney and sixteen-year-old Nathan, but they too are struggling under the shadow of family tragedy: their mother is dying of leukemia (a fact kept secret from Courtney), so they and their mother have returned to live with their mother's mother, from whom the family has been estranged. The attraction between Nathan and Liz seems more convenient than heartfelt, and the multitude of plot strands make for a somewhat bulky weave, but this is nonetheless an emotional story about grief: Liz's pain at being insufficient for her mother, Nathan's anguish at both his mother's deterioration and the abrupt changes thrust upon him, Liz's father's sadness at losing the wife he knew to a belief and practice he abhors, and Liz's mother's despair at losing the mother who had provided her sense of self. The exploration of spiritualism leans toward the skeptical view, since church attendants are plausibly misremembering vague and hesitant pronouncements as direct and significant hits, but there's also some thoughtful exploration of why such experiences may nonetheless have meaning and how various kinds of faith and spirituality can offer solace in the face of loss. The portrait of Liz's mother isn't unsympathetic, but it's stern, definitely allying the viewpoint with narrator Liz; many readers will appreciate that vicarious literary championing and wish they could echo Liz's dressing downs of her mother with their own parents.