22 Dec 2010 01:44:48
Within hours, Ramona has taken over the care of her step-granddaughter and the child's stray dog; the pipes in her house have burst; and she is teetering ever closer to bankruptcy.
Barbara O'Neal adds to the growing pile of novels fortified with recipes with her latest release, "How to Bake a Perfect Life." Told alternately from Ramona's, her daughter's and her granddaughter's perspective, the novel includes bread and sourdough starter recipes.
But these are really just window dressing for the story, which explores serious subjects including teen pregnancy, drug addiction and the war in Afghanistan. Ramona was a teenage mother. Now in her early 40s, she is still trying to figure out how to repair her relationship with her own mother and family while helping her daughter cope with her husband's injuries.
Her daughter, Sofia, is suffering through the final stages of pregnancy while trying to remain strong for a husband who no longer seems to want her around. And her granddaughter is struggling with the potential loss of her father to war and her mother to addiction.
The beauty of O'Neal's novel is in its recognition that sometimes good things happen along with the bad and that those chances at happiness — whether they're baking bread or falling in love — cannot be pushed off to a more convenient moment without the risk of loss.
Barbara O'Neal adds to the growing pile of novels fortified with recipes with her latest release, "How to Bake a Perfect Life." Told alternately from Ramona's, her daughter's and her granddaughter's perspective, the novel includes bread and sourdough starter recipes.
But these are really just window dressing for the story, which explores serious subjects including teen pregnancy, drug addiction and the war in Afghanistan. Ramona was a teenage mother. Now in her early 40s, she is still trying to figure out how to repair her relationship with her own mother and family while helping her daughter cope with her husband's injuries.
Her daughter, Sofia, is suffering through the final stages of pregnancy while trying to remain strong for a husband who no longer seems to want her around. And her granddaughter is struggling with the potential loss of her father to war and her mother to addiction.
The beauty of O'Neal's novel is in its recognition that sometimes good things happen along with the bad and that those chances at happiness — whether they're baking bread or falling in love — cannot be pushed off to a more convenient moment without the risk of loss.
