June 8, 2009 • reading •

Monday Book Talk: “The Laws of Harmony,” by Judith Ryan Hendricks

I received this book for review through LibraryThing’s Early Reviewers Program.

The Laws of Harmony: A Novel by Judith R. Hendricks


The Laws of Harmony: A Novel
Judith Ryan Hendricks
Harper, 2009 (paperback) (ISBN 0061687367 / 9780061687365)
Fiction, 496 pages

First sentence: “The heat is a presence. Palpable and relentless, it rolls over Albuquerque like a hot iron.”

Random clip (page 300): “I buy a double espresso from a woman who has a little cart set up right by the entrance every Saturday and head for Heather the Bread Lady’s table, piled with crusty brown loaves that she and her family bake in their wood-burning brick oven. With a loaf of still-warm country French in my pack, I move on to the tables of fresh goat cheese, bins of vegetables with crumbs of dirt still clinging to their roots, pastured chicken and eggs, organic beef, the cookie guy.”

Book description: Sunny Cooper has been running since she was eighteen—from the New Mexican commune where she grew up . . . and from the haunting memory of the freak accident that took the life of her younger sister. Now, at thirty-two, Sunny voices radio spots in Albuquerque while struggling to hold on to a floundering relationship. But when a second tragic accident—and the devastating truths that come to light in its aftermath—turns her world upside down, Sunny runs again.

In the town of Harmony on San Miguel Island, she takes a new job, learns to ride a motorcycle, and makes some surprising new friends. But the past is never far behind. A startling discovery—along with an emotional and revelatory reunion with her estranged mother—is forcing Sunny to step out from the shadows of yesterday to embrace an uncertain future.

Comments: At the end of this review, you’ll find links to other bloggers’ reviews of The Laws of Harmony. Most of them loved this book. I’d read a lot of those posts before I read the book, and I expected to love the book too. Expectations can be dangerous. I liked this novel well enough, but I didn’t fall in love with it…and now I feel like I’ve missed something, and vaguely guilty. (I think part of the problem is that I really did love the book I read just prior to this one – which I haven’t reviewed here yet, but it’s coming – so there was an unfortunate timing thing going on.)

Sunny Cooper grew up on a commune in northern New Mexico, and her childhood memories aren’t exactly happy ones. Her parents split up, her little sister died in a tragic accident, and there was very little she could call her own. Those experiences have shaped her into a self-protective woman who doesn’t attach herself to much, materially or emotionally. When her boyfriend disappears and she begins to learn just how much she didn’t know about him, she realizes it might be time to give herself a fresh start – she sells everything, gets on a plane, and ends up on San Miguel Island off the coast of Washington state. She finds herself in the town of Harmony, whose name echoes that of Armonía, the commune, but otherwise is as different as it could be.

If you ever went off on your own with the intent of starting fresh somewhere else, Harmony is the kind of place you’d like to land. It’s the proverbial small town with a big heart (except for Sarah Lakes, Sunny’s first landlady), and it’s hard to keep your walls up against some of the people who call it home. Eventually, Sunny comes to accept a community that’s accepted her – and the baby that she’s stunned to discover she’s expecting.

Sunny’s a great character, intimacy issues and all, and Judith Ryan Hendricks effectively shows how both her history and her present shape who she is. Sunny is also shaped by her relationship with food – preparing it, savoring it, and bonding with people over it. The best times in her complicated relationship with her mother are the ones they’ve spent in kitchens together. I enjoy food writing, and Hendricks effectively incorporates it into Sunny’s story.

But I think I wanted more story here. The Laws of Harmony does include many of the elements I like in a novel – an emphasis on relationships, setting as character, a source of mystery and suspense – but I felt that Hendricks made a choice to leave some things at loose ends. On the one hand, I think that makes the book more effective and realistic – how often do things get neatly resolved in our own lives, after all? – but on the other, I think I would have been more satisfied with it if it had been a little neater, and if some of the other characters besides Sunny had been filled in a little bit more.

This is the first of Judith Ryan Hendricks’ books that I’ve read. I’d recommend it to readers who like character-based fiction, and I liked it enough that I would read other novels of here – but I really wanted to love it, and I’m left feeling a bit wistful over the fact that I didn’t.

Rating: 3.75/5

Buy The Laws of Harmony at Amazon.com

Other bloggers’ reviews:
Caribousmom
Dreadlock girl
Peeking Between the Pages
Book Addiction
Book Chatter and Other Stuff
The Literate Housewife Review
Stephanie’s Written Word
Books and Cooks
Booking Mama
Confessions of a Real Librarian
Books and Movies
Lesley’s Book Nook

This book was hosted by TLC Book Tours, and some of the reviews listed above were part of that blog tour.

If you’ve reviewed this book, please leave your link in comments or e-mail me at 3.rsblog AT Gmail DOT com, and I’ll edit this review to include it.

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9 comments

  3. Kathy (Bermudaonion) – I am too, although I did like it well enough. But I really wanted to love it, since I know so many other people who did! I do think timing was a factor, though.

    Flower – You're welcome, and I hope you enjoy the book!

  4. Thanks for the link to my review. I'm sorry this one didn't blow you away…but I do think that if you've just read an awesome book, it is sometimes hard to get excited about the next one. I think Hendricks purposefully left the loose ends because there will be a sequel to this book (I think it is coming out in 2010). This was my first Hendricks book, and it was just the right read for me when I read it – timing can be important!!

  6. Thanks for the link to my review. I did love this book but then I'm a huge fan of Judith Hendricks too. Like Wendy I think there will be a sequel to this book so things were left a little up in the air. You know sometimes though when you read something really great it doesn't matter what comes next, it just won't measure up.

  7. Wendy – I read the "conversation with the author" at the end of the book, and I wasn't clear from that if she was planning a sequel or not. I'd read it, though – I'd like to see what happens next for Sunny.

    Marie – It was pretty good overall, which is why I wish I'd connected with it more than I did.

    Dar – Thanks :-). I think maybe I should just chalk it up to timing, since it's not like I didn't enjoy it at all – I just wanted to enjoy it more, I guess.

  8. Too many positive reviews can lead to a bit of disappointment, I know. I think that's why I like coming across a review like yours (which is great, by the way). It helps keep my own expectations grounded. I haven't yet read this one, but it is on my wish list.

  9. Wendy (Literary Feline) – It's probably a combination of a lot of positive reviews and the fact that the book I read right before it has been really hard to shake off, in this case. I'd definitely recommend reading it, though – I'm glad it's on your list!