The Memory of Water and Five Kinds of Silence Book

As a sister never comfortable with her role in the triad, I appreciated this The Memory of Water. As a daughter who watched her mother break apart and drift away on an ocean of dementia, I appreciated it even more. Stephenson does a lot with a little. Forgiveness and forgetting run throughout the witty banter. I would love to see this staged.

Five Kinds of Silence, however, felt heavy handed. But then it's about a controlling abusive father who was controlled and abused himself. Unlike Vi, the mother in The Memory of Water -- Billy, the dead abusive father never has the grace to leave. I do not like the ending, but maybe I don't understand it. The cycle of abuse never ending? The dysfunctional family gone to heaven together? The sisters moving forward, buying a maisonette together? Oh, come on. Couldn't they have done without the shelving?