It's good, but expected more suspense.

Wat een prachtig boek. 4,5 ster waard. Ontroerend,hartverscheurend en aangrijpend verhaal

I'm really interested in the mixed reviews Jacquelyn Mitchard's The Deep End of the Ocean has received on Goodreads. Frankly, I thought I was going to be the rare grouch giving it a 4 rather than a 5. So I was shocked by the number of 1 ratings this book has on Goodreads.

The Deep End of the Ocean is not a perfect book. Let's get that out of the way upfront. The plotting needs work. The main character, Beth Cappadora, is not particularly likable. However, despite Beth's unlikability, she's an interesting character. I suspect many readers don't like her because she's too much like they are--imperfect. Mitchard has created some beautiful passages in this book--her prose style is lovely. The novel, like the situation, doesn't end exactly happily. Mitchard takes the risk of exploring what happens to the Cappadora family after they discover what happened to their son and of not giving us a neat and tidy criminality in the perpetrator of the crime.

Ben Cappadora, aged three, is kidnapped. It is nine years before the family discovers what happened to him. The grief Beth, her husband, their children, and their extended family experience is realistically presented. Beth is not a Stoic, holding up bravely and carrying on for the sake of the rest of her family. She falls apart--for years. This breeds resentment in her older son, Vincent, and the baby daughter never has a chance to see her mother in a nongrieving state. Beth's husband, Pat, is left to manage his own grief and anger without the support of his wife. There's a lot of blame toward and finger-pointing at Beth, whom everyone deems responsible. Beth is not a perfect parent. She gets angry sometimes and grabs the kids' arms a little too hard. She becomes obsessed in her own work and doesn't give 100% of her attention to her children. She's often selfish. That doesn't mean she doesn't love her kids. Beth is the same kind of mother I am--decidedly imperfect. It's not an aspect of myself I like, but it's one I'm glad I can acknowledge. I suspect a lot of women reading this novel want to believe they are and could be better at handling the situation than Beth is. They don't like her because they don't like that part of themselves that's like her.

It would be easy for an author to take the easy way out and show the Cappadora family coping bravely and finding strong love and solidarity. That's not the way it works. Things are complicated. Though the crime is solved, the Cappadoras don't gain any understanding into why it happened. There's no justice, per se.

Despite the imperfections in plotting, The Deep End of the Ocean is a compelling novel that I would highly recommend.