Book Summary and Reviews of A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl by Jean Thompson

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Cathryn Conroy

Written with Great Emotional Insight: A Sad Book About the Inexorable Ties of Mothers and Daughters
Oh, this is a sad book. But it's also a book about real life, and some of real life IS sad. Very sad. Author Jean Thompson has written a magnificent story about mothers and daughters over three generations that will resonate with virtually every woman.

The novel, which takes place from World War II to the present day, is set in an unnamed small college town in the Midwest—the kind of town where the college dominates everything and those who live there are called "townies."

• Evelyn is the matriarch. She married Andrew soon after the war ended, but she never recovered from her anger and frustration at having to settle for marriage instead of a career. After all, in those days it was one or the other. She has two children, Laura and Mark, both of whom came later in an already later-in-life marriage. Her husband is an attorney and an esteemed member of the college faculty.

• Laura grew up in this small college town and went to college there. After graduation, she got an unimportant, boring job, waiting to fall in love and get married. One night in a bar she meets Gabe, who is a graduate student. Gabe is good looking and will soon be gainfully employed, even if he does drink too much. They marry. They have two children, Grace and Michael. Laura lives her life to serve her family, but she is left exhausted and often harried. She feels invisible. Laura has a secret—a big, big, big secret that she has carefully guarded most of her life. Under the direst of circumstances, she reveals to Grace a clue to the secret.

• It's modern day, but if it were the 1960s, Grace, who is 26, would have been a hippie. Fiercely independent as she tries to emotionally and physically separate from her family, she only eats health food, works as a cashier in a health food market, and teaches yoga. She and her live-in boyfriend, Ray, are slowly slipping apart. Grace has no idea what she wants to do with her life, but she doesn't want to be like her mother, subservient to her husband and children. Grace's brother Michael is a talented musician and a drug addict, who has been in and out of rehab. Her relationship with her mother is fine, but her father's rage and resentment about his life and Michael's addiction is so intense, Grace avoids him. And then two things happen that will forever change Grace's life in tragic and confusing ways.

This is a family saga about the lives of these three unhappy women—from all the small joys and heartbreaks to the big secrets they hold close. Although Evelyn, Laura, and Grace are all stuck in their lives, seemingly unable to change things, they each desperately try to find happiness. The title is brilliant. Laura twice thinks of herself as a shape-shifting cloud (a cloud in the shape of a girl), and that metaphorically describes all three women as they shift their place in the world to please others first.

Written with great emotional insight, this is a novel about unfulfilled lives, difficult marriages, family dysfunction, and the inexorable ties that bind mothers and daughters through it all.

Just be prepared: It is sad…very, very sad.

Sandi W.

bleak and sorrowful
This was a book that I probably would have set down, if it were not that I was reading it with a group. But because I was, I forged on, and am now fairly happy that I did.

The first half of this book was frustrating. I felt the characters were shallow and basically portrayed people who I try hard not to associate with. The story tells of three generations of women. First Evelyn, who was forced to conform and marry, when it was not what she wanted. Second was the peace maker Laura, who blamed herself for everyone else's problems. Lastly came Grace, who having no self confidence, was trying to find her place in life. I actually think the author did a good job in portraying these women, because I had such a visceral dislike for them.

In the second half of the book there was sadness. More sadness than even in the first half. Due to two deaths more intermediate people were brought into the story. This half of the story centered mostly on drug abuse and played out the way a lot of families actually go through it. This half also began to resolve some of the secrets and lies that had plagued the story.

This is the first novel I have read by Jean Thompson, so hate to do her a disservice by condemning her book or writing. I will say that even though I disliked her characters, she wrote them well enough to get that reaction from me. I would hesitantly read another novel by Thompson, but would first check it out making sure that it's subject matter was not as bleak and sorrowful as this book.

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