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This week’s review: How to Walk Away

How to Walk Away | Katherine Center | 2018, 320 pages | Fiction

What happens when you’ve got your life all planned out, everything is falling into place and then, in an instant, the plan totally implodes? This is the story of a young woman, Margaret, who focused and achieved, graduated business school with honors and a MBA, had advanced in her career to the dream job, was about to get engaged and start the life of her dreams, and then it all changed.

Margaret experiences a horrible accident that alters the rest of her life to something she cannot even imagine. The bestselling author, Katherine Center, is known for infusing her stories with her dry sense of humor, making this dark narrative into a humorous read. The reader is privy to all of the main character’s “things you think but never say,” her realistic account of the trauma she endures, and the anguish and hilarity of her unfiltered response to it all. The book also gives the reader insight into the dynamics of her family. It seems in response to their mother’s expectations, Maggie was “always trying to get things exactly right, and she (her sister Kitty) was always hell-bent on getting them spectacularly wrong.” In this case, a family thought to be permanently torn apart finds a way to heal and forgive in the face of greater issues beyond themselves.

Carol Bouchard, Circulation Supervisor