Sweet Lamb of Heaven by Lydia Millet
When Lena was born Anna started hearing the voice. The voice would recite dictionary entries,
song lyrics and poems whenever Lena was awake.
As soon as Lena started to speak the voice stopped.
We meet Anna and Lena when the girl is six years old and they
are living in a seaside motel on the coast of Maine in the off season. Anna took her daughter there after leaving
their last temporary home, moving to avoid her husband Ned whom she left years
ago in Alaska. But now Ned is running
for office and he needs to have his wife and daughter by his side for the
campaign. But will he let them go, safe
and sound, once the election is over?
Okay, I should have known this was going to be really
weird. After all I read her Mermaids in Paradise last year and that was definitely the oddest one I read in a while and
I mean that mostly in a good way. This
book got great reviews so I figured I would give the author another try. Now I really like weird books. But this one, not so much. The philosophical musings on the origin of
the voice were really neat, but in the end I don’t think things were resolved,
or at least not to my liking.
If you like book that make you suspend belief and ponder the
fabric of the universe you may enjoy this one, if you’re looking for something
a down to earth with just a touch of the “other” this one probably isn’t for
you.
