BIG LITTLE LIES by Liane Moriarty

This was a highly entertaining book with a fantastic twist. Liane Moriarty is the queen of vivid imagery which makes her characters very real and her stories very engaging. Reading her books makes you wonder what goes on in your local school, community, street, neighbourhood. Her stories turn the ordinary into something fascinating. Big Little Lies tells of one quintessential truth (quintessential being Liane's favourite word, at least in this book): just about everyone has secrets and all those who do would tell any lie to protect them, the most tragic secret guarded by one of this book's main characters being one of domestic violence. I loved the way Liane Moriarty handled this difficult subject in an objective way by uncovering another layer of abuse hiding behind the violence, that of bullying. Behind the perfect facade and protected by money and an impeccable image even the most unlikely can be oppressors but underneath the adult monsters cower little boys unable to handle humiliation to any degree. This is a story of a tragic death but so well written and intrigue so well perpetuated throughout the book that it is not until the very end that the reader finds out who actually died. Loved it. A warning: this book has swearing and blasphemy in it. This is my one and only complaint.

WE ARE WATER by Wally Lamb

I was conflicted reading this book. My love of Wally Lamb's style of writing conflicted highly with my aversion for swearing and non-acceptance of homosexuality. This book, however, captured my attention and I could not put it down once I started it because of its' perfect portrayal of the complexities of our society. Wally Lamb is a brilliant writer and a master of introspection which he employs as a medium for his storytelling. It was clear to me as I read this captivating story, that this book exposes the effects of our attempt to emancipate ourselves from God and His laws. As a society we have successfully removed ourselves from good old Christian values we used to live by and in the process we have shot ourselves in the foot. I think, however, that this was not Wally Lamb's intention. He cites on several occasions 'it is what it is', meaning this is the way things are, without judgement and prejudice, because nothing is ever simple, or can be justified or can be explained away. To me as a Christian striving to adhere to God's very wisely given commandments, it IS simple. If we had not removed God from our lives we would not have filled our world with crime, violence, unwanted pregnancies, addictions, alcoholism, drug abuse, pornography, sexual diseases, murder, rape, pedophilia and the list goes on. This book deals with most of these. Annie Oh, the protagonist, is a sexual abuse victim who turns to a lesbian lifestyle after 27 years of marriage; her husband Orion Oh, is a product of an unwanted pregnancy of his teenage mother and married father who would not face his fatherhood responsibility and would have nothing to do with his unwanted child; their oldest daughter, Ariane, is desperate for a child with a string of failed relationships with men who refuse to marry her (and why would they when sex is so freely given) so she resorts to artificial insemination; their son Andrew who is physically abused by his mother during his growing up years and ends us murdering his mother's childhood abuser; their youngest daughter Marissa, is a sexually promiscuous alcoholic; Annie's father is a chronic alcoholic who could never get over his wife's death; Annie's cousin and abuser, Ken, was abandoned by his father in his youth and abused on ongoing basis by the babysitter turning him into a pedophile. As I said, this book is heavy going but so accurately indicative of the world we live in. It is confronting but in my opinion also a call to examine the standards and values we are living by in this 21st century and where they are leading us.