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The Matter of Grace Nal Accent Novels Jessica Barksdale Inclan Books

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The Matter of Grace Nal Accent Novels Jessica Barksdale Inclan Books

The author creatively understood and interpreted the dimensions of female friendships. Loyalty and the "how do we help" relationships among long standing friends are uncovered in the story line of this book. The reader is rewarded with interesting twists and turns in the different characters lives. Also, Jessica permits the reader to give thought to imagine what is involved in the ending. This reader would say it is a must read!


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The Matter of Grace Nal Accent Novels Jessica Barksdale Inclan Books Reviews

Felice, Stella, Helen and Grace are four women who have been friends for about 7 years. Each week they gather and meet at a local swimming club where they involve themselves in conversation while their children learn to swim. Ms. Barksdale Inclan allows us a look at the closely intertwined friendship these four women share. Women who are struggling with motherhood, friendship, being a wife and the adversity that comes with each of these roles. The writing is so vividly clear that you feel as though you are the fifth friend in this group of four women silently listening to their conversations from a lounge chair at the side of the pool. Each of these women brings to the story a peek into their lives of the troubles and feelings they deal with on a day to day basis. Lives that many of us who are married and have friends can relate to. Their struggles are real, wrought with emotion and written with such clarity that you can feel, understand and appreciate the internal turmoil these women deal with. From a failed marriage, to a wandering eye to a serious illness. When Grace becomes ill the women gather to help their friend with her illness. Along this journey of comfort and compassion they each discover something about themselves and their lives. What they discover about Grace, is that you don't always know people, even your closest friends, as well as you think you do. The bond of friendship and motherhood is a strong and powerful thread throughout this novel.
Ms. Inclan has a true gift for writing that is rare to find. She writes with such clarity and emotion and is able to convey to and invoke in the reader, a feeling and sense of unity. Of being in the story with the characters and feeling as though you are experiencing their lives, their emotions, their hopes, their dreams, their friendship and the bond between them. The story draws you in from the beginning and keeps you warmly embraced until the end.
This is a story of the friendship of four women, each one with her story in this very summer, the center being Grace's recurring cancer. Narration and perspectives alternate among these women, on how they are trying to help Grace, as well as dealing with their own personal lives and inner conflicts.

It's an interesting soup of love, families, and friends. One faces divorce, another is having an affair, yet another is separating from her woman lover, and the last one seems to have it all. Yet they come together to be there for Grace and her daughter.

But Grace and her illness seem to be weird in many ways. The friends starts to get bewildered by things that do not add up. In their effort to help her, things get out of control.. and the story gets really interesting, what with the speculation and anticipation! Not being truthfully honest somehow spoils the otherwise beautifully reciprocal true friendship.

Unfortunately, it remains a mystery. The author justifies this by highlighting that in real life we don't always know all there is to know. But I want to know the story, as whole as possible, and aren't books suppose to transport us to a world of more understanding? But the catch is maybe the author is trying to show that not knowing the whole story is one way of understanding..
This novel is about a woman who tries to conceal her eating disorder and her very close friends that basically allow her to do so for quite a long time.
In Oakland, Grace and 3 of her local swim club buddies make a strong friendship over the years. Nearly every day they see each other and share each other's sorrows and happiness. In the beginning of their friendship Grace divulges a story of surviving cancer. When her weight begins to plummet and she appears to be a walking cadaver, she reluctantly admits the cancer is raging nearly out of control. Her friends, without question, accept her story. There is little reason not to, until, as time goes on, things just do not seem to make sense.
However, it is a subject which is difficult to deal with. Each of the other women have their own problems, some worse than the other. While trying to do the best they can with their problems (divorce, pregnancy, etc) the matter of Grace becomes more convoluted.
In truth, such a problem can get pretty complicated before it is dealt with. Finally accepting warnings from others that Grace may be suffering from an eating disorder, the group of women plan an intervention. Without a solid structure, commitment and professional intervention, the attempt falls apart, leaving the group impotent to furthur confrontation.
The reality of Grace is that the disease is a process that continues unmercifully. It is also understood that eating disorder patients may also have drug, alcohol and self-mutilation addictions. The matter of Grace is beyond this clique of 4. The matter of Grace is beyond Grace.
I welcome and applaud the efforts of Jessica Barksdale Inclan to bring forth the issue of eating disorders. As a nurse and personally involved with a close relative with the eating disorder, I appreciate any and all efforts to educate the public about this problem. The book holds the worthy NAL accent and will enhance the understanding of eating disorders, recognition and treatment. It is up to all of us not to turn away and explore the possiblility of eating disorders. We may not be able to cure, but we can understand, accept , love and be supportive for those that suffer in the same problems such as the matter of Grace.
The author creatively understood and interpreted the dimensions of female friendships. Loyalty and the "how do we help" relationships among long standing friends are uncovered in the story line of this book. The reader is rewarded with interesting twists and turns in the different characters lives. Also, Jessica permits the reader to give thought to imagine what is involved in the ending. This reader would say it is a must read!