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How well do we really know our friends and loved ones? Are we so wrapped up in our own personal sagas that we start to see others in our lives as two-dimensional people instead of three-dimensional people with real feelings and real problems? If we were suddenly taken from this world, what would be the legacy we left behind? And when faced with the choice of pursuing personal passions or sacrificing our own desires for the good of our families, what choice would we make? Uncomfortable questions, all of them - and ones that we may fleetingly ask ourselves but try not to focus on. However, in Nichole Bernier's debut novel, The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D., all of these questions and more are faced head-on by Kate Spenser. When Kate inherits a trunk full of journals from her friend Elizabeth, who passed away in a sudden accident, she's not sure what to expect. However, as she spends hours reading through over 25 years worth of her friend's writing, she realizes that the smiling, helpful, seemingly perfect friend and mother who was the leader of the neighborhood mother-child playgroup in their small town in Connecticut was far more complex than she ever could have imagined. Losing her little sister in a freak accident at a young age, the divorce of her parents, her mother's struggles with alcohol, her passion for art and talent as an artist, her mother's battle with (and loss to) cancer, and her true feelings about having to give up her job as a graphic designer to be the "perfect" mother are just some of the things Kate discovers about her friend...and she also discovers where Elizabeth was really headed on the day she died - which wasn't where she told her friends and family she was going. Through reading Elizabeth's journals, Kate is forced to confront her own feelings about loyalty, trust, family, career, and more. Fascinating, compelling, and disturbing at times, The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. is a beautifully written and thought-provoking work, and the questions raised in it will linger in the minds of the reader long beyond its completion.
For those of us in the world who suffer through loss, and have a difficult time managing that loss, there will be touchstones found in this book. Nichole Bernier has written about the loss of a woman, mother, who became known to her closest friend through a series of journals kept by the deceased protagonist. As we weave our way through the friend's reading of these journals, left to her as a bequest, life reveals itself in ways we all know. Tactics of evasion, perhaps in a dysfunctional manner, permeate her life, and dissolve traces of a happy well-balanced mother and wife. Thus is the underside of every leaf in the garden: a different light, some mold, another world. The deceased protagonist, Elizabeth D. remains a misty figure to her husband, and well-meaning friend, while she uses her journals to deal with all of her inner conflicts. Begun as a child in pre-adolescence, these journals convey her journey through life's unending trials, problems, and solutions that we all find as a means to cope. Set in the summer, on a New England vacation island, we have the warmth of the sun to dispel any morose mood that invades the space of the cottage setting, while Kate dutifully reads through all of Elizabeth's words. She arrives at solving the riddle of why, and what, and brings us to a neat closure for all concerned. Bernier's characters seem well founded in real life, tied to living breathing types we can all relate to. They bring us to understand relationships, doubt, and spend a good deal of time on Motherhood. It's a read for passing onto your daughter, niece, protege, for a quick study in life lessons.
Nichole Bernier's "The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D." is touching, thought-provoking, intriguing and compelling. This is a story of friendship, motherhood, marriage, life and death. We are only introduced to Elizabeth after her untimely death, but we get to know her through he journals which she left behind to her friend, Kate. Through Elizabeth's journals, Kate discovers a hidden past and secret not-so-past about her friend. Reading Elizabeth's journals causes Kate to reevaluate her life as a wife and a mother. As a wife and a mother myself, this book really made me pause and think. How well do we really know our friends and loved ones? Do we have secrets ourselves? How do we want to be remembered when we are no longer here? These are deep, sometimes tough questions to ask ourselves, but they are necessary questions nonetheless. "The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D." is a great read; fictional, yes, but presenting real-life issues pertinent to all of us in one way or another.
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D. is Highly Recommended by Whom You Know.
Bravo Nichole! We can't wait to see what you do next.
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If you live your life for other people, what remains when you’re gone? NICHOLE BERNIER’S dazzling debut novel THE UNFINISHED WORK OF ELIZABETH D. (Broadway: March 12, 2013) is a thoughtful exploration of the struggle for identity women face as they become wives and mothers. When Elizabeth Martin dies suddenly, leaving behind a legacy of private diaries, her best friend realizes she didn’t know her confidante as well as she thought — including where Elizabeth was really going when she died. Set in the anxious summer after September 11th, this story of women’s friendship considers the fine line between privacy and deception and the measures one woman took to protect her sense of self.
Nearly a year after Kate Spenser lost Elizabeth in a tragic accident, fear and anxiety have filled the cracks of her daily life, amplified by mounting tension following the 2011 terrorist attacks. Kate stays home with her two children, her career as a pastry chef on the back burner, and hoards emergency supplies in the back of her SUV while masking her distress from her often-absent husband.
Summer vacation on Great Rock Island should have been a restorative time, but Kate’s problems accompany her in the form of Elizabeth’s diaries—decades of musings and secrets locked tight in a trunk she willed to Kate, not to her own husband. Armed with only one direction—“Start at the beginning”—Kate begins reading, but finds the journals reveal a woman far different than the cheerful wife and mother Kate thought she knew. Elizabeth’s complicated history – her troubled upbringing, frustrated artistic ambitions, and her uncertainties about marriage and motherhood— makes Kate question not just their friendship, but her own deepest beliefs about love, family, and fidelity. When a mysterious man’s name leads Kate to discover the truth behind Elizabeth’s death, she is challenged to rethink her own choices and the personal legacy she would want to leave behind.
Debut novelist NICHOLE BERNIER’s deft touch brings to life this poignant exploration of women’s friendship. Examining the age-old arts of sacrifice and secrecy in the modern era of competitive mothering, Bernier’s book sheds light on the vast differences between our private lives and public persona. Richly imagined and brilliantly executed, THE UNFINISHED WORK OF ELIZABETH D. is a welcome addition to the “educated women’s lit” canon, in the tradition of J. Courtney Sullivan and Dani Shapiro.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
NICHOLE BERNIER is a writer for magazines including Elle, SELF, Health, Men’s Journal, and Boston Magazine, and a longtime contributing editor with Condé Nast Traveler, where she was previously on staff as a columnist, golf and ski editor, and television spokesperson. She is a founder of the literary website BeyondTheMargins.com, and lives outside Boston with her husband and five children. Follow her on Twitter @nicholebernier and visit her on the web at www.NicholeBernier.com.
The Unfinished Work of Elizabeth D: A Novel
By Nichole Bernier
Broadway Paperbacks | March 12, 2013
336 pages | $14.00 | 9780307887825
