Unaware of "A Constellation of Vital Phenomena" (CVP) until the much deserved BookBrowse and Goodreads 2013 book awards were announced and certainly glad I check on these. Received this book from BookBrowse in order to participate in the website’s book discussion. My rating is not influenced by this.

Immensely enjoyed CVP. Rate it 5 stars, a rating I’ve not bestowed to a contemporary book for nearly a year. One huge endorsement is that I put this novel on my Goodreads “reread shelf” which mainly holds classics and another is that I judge it to be a great choice for book clubs. For me, CVP’s strengths included its beautiful prose, character development, unique take on what could have been yet another “political/war story” and interweaving story lines which were successfully completed by the book’s conclusion. My one criticism is that it took me a while to become fully engaged with the novel due to my lack of knowledge about Chechnya and the considerable detail about the multiple characters. A sign of CVP’s success is that it motivated me to seek out additional knowledge about Chechnya after finished the book.

Have recommended CVP to everyone in my large circle of bibliophilic friends and family (with the advise to read about Chechnya in advance and be patient for their literary reward). Also, this novel’s story and characters were in my thoughts long after I finished so CVP became a topic of conversation with my non-reading friends.

Received this book as an advance copy from Random House

“War…next to love, has most captured the world’s imagination” – Eric Partridge, 1914 (believe he is a famous lexicographer and author who served in the Australian Imperial Force during WWI). This quote begins Ellen Feldman’s book about WWII’s effect on the family members and community stateside. A refreshing take from the abundance of WWII era books set in Europe.

Appreciated the author’s choice to write about characters afflicted with mental illness - depression and, what is now called, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and then was labeled Battle Fatigue or Shell Shock. One veteran, Claude, suffered the PTSD symptom of survivor’s guilt, emotional numbing and withdrawal from personal relationships and socializing. He also had flashbacks (manifested by appearing “spaced out”), night terrors and intense reactions to reminders of the war (like the sound of firecrackers). Unfortunately, post-WWII Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was not medically recognized so went untreated. Veterans and their families suffered privately. Current studies reveal that up to a third of veterans who have had combat experience in the Middle East develop PTSD and half of these men and women develop symptoms severe enough to cause significant disruption in their lives.

Disagreed with other critiques that the author introduced too many issues. For example, the subject of discrimination was often only casually mentioned as this shows how insignificant an issue the characters believed it to be – doesn’t affect me so why should I care? Did struggle with the novel’s timeline jumping forward and back thus frequently found myself flipping through the book to ascertain where I was in a particular character’s life and relationship with others.

Rate "The Sometimes Daughter" with a 2 for several reasons. The first, is the lack of sophistication in the prose - this book read as a YA book rather than one aimed at adults. The characters ended up as stereotypes as their personalities and relationships with each other were not fully developed. Understand the author's intent of demonstrating that an authoritarian/emotionally absent mother married to a passive father creates another dysfunctional generation and so on. In addition, do not believe that Cassie's joining The People's Temple was necessary to convey her psychological need to create an alternate family definition & the negative effects this had on Judy - concepts were already covered with her move to the commune. Specifically do not recommend this for a reading group as there is not enough substance for a discussion.

In an interview when the author is asked about his characters' choices on the Nigerian beach he replies, "Life is savagely unfair. It ignores our deep-seated convictions and places a disproportionate emphasis on the decisions we make in split seconds.". IMO, in addition to learning about Nigeria's people, culture and politics, this is the teaching point of this novel. One we all should remember when making choices. Bravo Chris Cleave!