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Description edit
In The Rest of Her Life , Laura Moriarty delivers a luminous, compassionate, and provocative look at how mothers and daughters with the best intentions can be blind to the harm they do to one another. Leigh is the mother of high-achieving, popular high school senior Kara. Their... read more
Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit
Characters/People edit
- Leigh Churchill: Mother to Kara; teacher.
- Kara Churchill: teenage girl who kills a student while driving
- Gary: Kara's father.
- Pam: Leigh's sister.
- Justin: Kara's brother.
- Bethany Cleese: The girl Kara killed in the accident.
- Diane Kletchka: Bethany's mother.
- Danby: Add a description of this character.
- Taft: Kara's lawyer.
- Eva: Leigh's friend; Willow's mom.
- Cynthia Tork
- Wayne: Leigh's mother's husband.
- Rick Bechelmeyer: Principal at the school where Leigh works and boyfriend of Eva.
- Ryan
- Deirdre
- Audrey Nutter
- Danny
- Jim Tork
- Flannery O'connor
- Ellis: Pam's son.
- Kyle
- Bob
- Kevin Wornall
- Eric
- Willow: Kara's best friend.
Quotes edit
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“"In her mind, Christianity was like Amway --- you didn't bring it up with a true believer unless you wanted in or were ready to ward off a serious sales pitch.”
Leigh
- Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers
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she never saw me, me as an individual. Do you know what I’m saying? She gave us everything she ever wanted. But she never thought about what we wanted, that it might be different. Or that we might need something she didn’t. She never saw us as separate from herself. She never saw us.”
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Maybe, Leigh considered, children just want whatever it is they don’t get. And then they grow up and give their children what they wanted, be it silence or information, affection or independence—so that child, in turn, craves something else. With every generation, the pendulum swings from opposite to opposite, stillness and peace so elusive.
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The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? I’m just trying not to be insane.
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if you worry about what people are saying about you, you’re giving them power. If you don’t worry, you keep it.”
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In her mind, Christianity was like Amway—you didn’t bring it up with a true believer unless you wanted in or were ready to ward off a serious sales pitch.
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something Jackie Kennedy had said: “If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do matters very much.”
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Worrying was painful, Leigh supposed, but compared to the alternative, a privilege.
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This was perhaps what it was like to mother anyone, Leigh decided, far away or close. You could only try your best, then wait to see if what you sent was needed or even wanted. If it wasn’t, then you packed a new box, and tried again.
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It took her years to understand that he could sometimes be bored with her or irritated with her, but that it didn’t mean he didn’t love her anymore, or that he was planning to leave.
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“Jesus himself noted there was no sense in tragedy, that God sent rain on the righteous and sinners alike. He offered no answers, only compassion and love, and so that is all we have when death, seemingly senseless, falls on someone we love in the bloom of youth.”
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Setting & Locations edit
First Sentence edit
SEVERAL TIMES THAT SUMMER, Leigh further tormented herself by considering all the ways the accident might never have happened.
Series & Lists edit
This book is in Kansas Notable Books (2008). (community list)
Authors & Contributors edit
- Laura Moriarty (Author)
First Edition edit
Original Language: English
Publisher: Hyperion
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2007
ISBN: 1401302718
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Hyperion
Country: USA
Publication Date: 2007
ISBN: 1401302718
Page Count: 320
Classification edit
- Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
- Dewey: 813.6
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