Dawn French's Oh Dear Silvia
I admit that, because this book is by DAWN FRENCH, I expected it to be completely hilarious, even though I knew it was about a woman in a coma, and her (very dysfunctional) family coming to visit her. But it's not meant to be a comedic novel--though it has some very funny black humor, and some straight up slapstick (mostly involving the coma patient's New Age-y sister). It's actually a very moving novel about a family torn apart and how they got that way, and how she ended up in a coma (which was all much more dramatic than I was anticipating!). The characters of the ex-husband and their daughter were especially well-done, and the end was very affecting. I'm not sure how entirely /believable/ everything was in retrospect, but at the moment of reading I was pretty well caught up. OK, looking at everything I just wrote, I realize it's kind of a mishmash, but the novel is a straightforward and strong one. Really unexpected and great. B+.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released in May.
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