Book Review - The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken (Yawn)

 The Hero of This Book by Elizabeth McCracken is an odd read. As I read it, I wasn't sure I really liked the narrator or her "hero". And yet, the story was compelling enough to keep me curious. And then, I'd easily put it down. But, I did want to see what was the point of the book. So, let's call me conflicted and not a quitter. 

Perhaps this book struck a bit too close to home in weird ways.  The narrator takes a trip to London to reflect on her late mother. The family home back in America is up for sale and the contents had been auctioned off. The narrator never wrote about her mother in previous works, referring to privacy and some inadequacy in actually doing her mother justice. 

cover blurb - This book is a searing examination of grief and renewal, and of a deeply felt relationship between a child and her parents. It ultimately becomes a lesson in what it means to write. At once comic and heartbreaking, with prose that delights at every turn, this is a novel of such piercing love and tenderness we are reminded that art is what remains when all else fails. 

That blurb is what drew me in to pluck this from the library shelves. The writing is good. Comic? No. 

People I could  connect to? No.   This book was quite short. That's a plus. I'm glad I did not purchase it. Hooray for libraries.