How To Be Lost by Amanda Eyre Ward

I'm so stupid (keep your agreements to yourself)! Maggie reminded me yesterday that I hadn't posted about this book that I read and finished about 2 weeks ago. In fact, I'm behind on two books. What the eff!? Am I really that busy? Nope, just lazy and suffering, I think, from early onset dementia! (Not really but sometimes I wonder).

Anyway, How To Be Lost is a book that revolves around the slightly dysfunctional character of Caroline. Caroline comes from a family of three girls who grew up in New York (just outside the city). The pivotal event in Caroline's childhood is when her youngest 5-year old sister Ellie disappears. On this day, the three girls had planned to run away to New Orleans to escape their drunk and impossible father (and in turn their passive, stick-your-head-in-the-sand mother). From this occurrence, Caroline and her remaining sister drift apart, her mother and father continue down the path they had started of drinking themselves into oblivion and everyone forges ahead in their ability to run away from life.

The novel begins with a 30-year old Caroline living in New Orleans working as a barmaid and drinking to forget her troubles. A People magazine article/picture of a woman who resembles her lost sister prompts Caroline to travel to Montana in search of her past. What follows is Caroline's journey through the guilt, regret and doubt that her childhood heaped upon her.

I really liked this book. Amazingly, considering the content, it was a witty read. Reading the first few pages, I thought I would be bogged down with Caroline's issues and the way she was choosing to live her life. I thought the wall she had built and the mistakes she made would leave me impatient and unable to continue reading about her pitiful existence. The opposite, however, became true. I began to cheer and hope for a woman who had lost all hope in her future. I wanted her journey to be a healing one for her regardless of what she found in Montana. In the end, Caroline finds that she isn't the only one that's lost and with that shared thread, people can hang on to each other for support and guidance through life. Read it. You'll like it.