A review by mellabella
A Long Time Gone by Karen White

4.0

Told between three generations of women in a family (Adeline in the 1920's, Carol Lynne in the 1960's and Vivien in 2013), I couldn't put A Long Time Gone down. It opens as Vivien is driving back to her childhood home in Mississippi from Los Angeles. She is fleeing a miscarriage in her 7th month and, a marriage with a horrible man that ended in divorce. It's the first time she has been back home in 9 years. She craves the comfort of her grandmother Bootsie. But learns that Bootsie has passed away. Vivien has not remained in contact with her brother Tommy or childhood friend (and love interest) Tripp in the years she's been gone. She didn't know her beloved grandmother passed away or, that her mother Carol Lynne is now suffering from early onset dementia. Carol Lynne's parts of the book are told through her diary. How she was in and out and her kids lives. How she resented, yet loved her mother Bootsie. How she left her kids periodically because she loved them. There is also a character named Mathilde. A Black woman who knew Adeline, Bootsie, Carol Lynne, and Vivien and played a friend, sister, mother role for one or each of them. When Vivien gets home the remains of a young woman have been unearthed after a storm. Amongst everything else going on in her life (an addiction to prescription pills, her 12 year old stepdaughter coming to see her against her ex husbands wishes and orders) Vivien sets out to solve the mystery of who this woman was. The only thing that stopped me from giving this book 5 stars was that we never heard Bootsie's side of things. Also, I have never been abandoned by my mother. But, maybe Vivien could have cut Carol Lynne some slack seeing how she had dementia. All that anger was warranted. But, it seemed a little... Pointless to direct it at a woman who is losing her memory. All in all, a really good read. I read one other book by this author. But this one made a fan.