Oh Dear Silvia

Summary (from the publisher): Silvia Shute has always done exactly what she wants. But after a fall from a balcony, her life has suddenly, shockingly stopped.

Now she's unconscious in a hospital bed, at the mercy of the mad friends and crazy relatives who have come to visit. Her beleaguered ex-husband, her newly independent daughter, her West Indian nurse, her bohemian sister, her best friend, her enthusiastic housekeeper, and others all share a piece of their collective mind with the complex woman - the bad mother, the cherished sister, the selfish wife, the matchless lover, the egotist, the martyr - they think they know.

And Sylvia can't talk back.

As she lies there, captive to the beloveds, the babblers, and the stark-raving bonkers who alternate at her bedside, the dark and terrible secret she has been hiding for years begins to emerge.

Like it or not, the truth has come to pay Silvia a visit. Again, and again, and again...

Review: I received an Advance Reader Copy of this book from HarperCollins.

I found this book disappointing and fairly absurd. Silvia Shute has fallen from a balcony and lies in a coma. She is visited by Ed, her ex-husband, Jo, her older sister, Winnie, her West Indian nurse, Tia, her housekeeper, Cat, her lover and "friend," and Cassie, her estranged daughter. All of the visitors, with the exception of her nurse who never knew her and her housekeeper, Silvia seems universally disliked. Her children hate her and haven't seen her in years, her husband is wounded and bitter at the abrupt end to their marriage, and her sister is too loony to really know who her sister was.

From the beginning, I found the whole plot of this book a poor choice to begin with. It's hard to have any action, except in flashbacks, when the whole novel takes place in a hospital room. Additionally, it's hard to believe that each one of these characters would speak aloud and at such length to the comatose Silvia - pouring out their thoughts and dreams in a busy hospital. It's hard to get excited at a book composed of a series of one-way conversations. It also seems like a cop-out that every accusation every leveled at Silvia occurs when she's unconscious and unable to respond. It's ironic that Silvia is the focus of this novel, because as a reader, I never got a sense of who she was or what exactly motivated her actions. And if she was so terrible as they all claim, why make such a big fuss over her?

Additionally, I found many of the characters really stereotypical and melodramatic. The ex-husband who almost kills himself under their favorite tree after Silvia leaves him. The ultra hippie, loopy sister who can't accept that Silvia will not recover. The housekeeper who is stealing from her. There were also a lot of scenes that were ridiculous in their absurdity. For example, when Jo tries animal therapy on Silvia, including a stick bug who "alien-like" clamps onto her face and "does a little clinging-on bouncy dance instead. It is positively showing off, wiggling its gnarly bottom over her nose." It was too silly and childish for me to find much of the humor of this book actually funny.

Stars: 2