Product Description

A novel of spellbinding emotional power about a family in crisis by a highly talented young author

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23795 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Features

• New
• Mint Condition
• Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon
• Guaranteed packaging
• No quibbles returns

Review
'Winthrop is brilliant at depicting the bewildering world and its assault on the senses of a struggling adolescent . . . This extraordinary novel seduces as it also challenges: curiously provoking and offering small flashes of illumination, like matches struck in that dim and meaningful space on the far side of language.' (Natalie Sandison, The Times )

'Like budding artist Isabelle, Winthrop is a master of observation, and her ability to crystallize themes in particular vignettes (fixing a broken phonograph, buying Christmas presents) brings this affecting family drama vividly to life.' (Publisher's Weekly )

From the Author
When people ask me what December is about, I sum it up this way, because it is easiest: `It is about an eleven-year old girl who won't speak, and hasn't spoken for the past nine months.' People then want to know why. Why won't she speak? What happened? Will she ever speak again? They generally look forward and backward from the situation, wanting causes and solutions, but what I was more interested in while writing the book was the situation itself, and what effect it was having on the characters involved. Isabelle's silence is the giant beast around which the three main characters triangulate, peering around it at each other when they're not fixating on the thing itself. It brings forth a whole host of emotions in each of the characters: shame, frustration, fear, regret, desperation, anger, hope, and, at the center of it all, love.

People often ask whether there was a time in my life when I, like Isabelle, did not speak. The answer to this is no, but her silence, for me, is a metaphor for the way an adolescent girl might manifest the bewilderment with which she views the world, whether it be through depression, addiction, anorexia, or any other number of ways. It isn't necessarily a response to a specific trauma or event as much as it is a reaction to the difficult task of being alive. In this sense, I am writing for all the girls who allegorically lose their voice for a time in the confusing process of growing up; I have been one of those girls too.

About the Author
Elizabeth H. Winthrop was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from Harvard University in 2001 with a BA in English and American Literature and Language, and in 2004 she received her Master of Fine Arts in fiction from the University of California. FIREWORKS, her first novel, was published by Sceptre in 2006. She lives in Savannah, Georgia with her husband, who is a painter, and her St. Bernard, and is currently at work on a third novel.

Customer Reviews

Full of insight
I loved this book and I'm surprised it hasn't got better reviews. The author's insights into the struggle of the parents to help their mute daughter and her feelings about her own silence, really struck a chord with me - possibly because I have also had a child with long term illness.

Isabel is 11 yrs old when she stops talking. The reasons why she has stopped are never really clear, but she gets herself into a situation from which she can't escape. Her parents do everything they can to help her but they are at a loss. Even the experts do not seem to be able to penetrate Isbael's silence.
The feelings of despair, mingled with continuing hope, are all pervasive as the freezing month of December draws to a close.

My only (small) quibble was the strangely large font which I found made me read the book jerkily until I got absorbed by the story and was able to ignore it.
A definite keeper.

Emotional upheaval within a family
'December' is Elizabeth Winthrop's second novel, but the first that I have read. It has been selected for the Richard and Judy book club choice list for 2009.

It is an interesting and gentle read, about Isabelle Carter, who is an eleven year-old girl who hasn't spoken for about nine months, and the novel explores the feelings of Isabelle herself, and those of her mother Ruth and father Wilson, as well as how the silence affects the dynamics of the family relationships, and how it changes Isabelle's day-to-day life.

The strain on the marriage and the agony of trying to find an answer or solution to break the self-imposed silence of Isabelle and rediscover the little girl that they knew before is explored in the novel, which is enjoyable and not too demanding. I found the characters interesting, if not always likeable, and there is a fairly well-developed role for Maggie, the canine animal friend belonging to the family.

The setting alternates between the city apartment in New York and a country residence in New England during the couple of weeks leading up to Christmas Day, and it is Isabelle's silence which permeates the entire novel. The coldness of the weather and descriptions of snow and of nature blend well with the emotions, struggles and mood of the story itself. Recommended.

December
The story begins nine months after Isabelle Carter stops speaking, and by this time her small family unit has become very insular and isolated. Her parents reactions vary from bewilderment (father) to resentment (mother) as they have to withdraw from their wealthy, busy lifestyles because they're sick of having to apologise and make excuses for their daughter's apparent rudeness. The mother (Ruth) comes across as quite brittle at times, about to snap at any moment, but you can hardly blame her.

At times I wanted to shake Isabelle for the apparently selfish way she has turned her family upside down, but as the book goes on Winthrop gets inside Isabelle's mind and starts to hint at why she retreated into her own little world and her feelings about the agony she's putting her parents through.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this one as much as I did. I thought it was going to be a bit too slow and ponderous for my taste, and while the pace is quite sedate it's also a very thoughtful and observant novel.