Lauren Fox's first two novels heralded the arrival of a vibrant new voice, one that could articulate the ups and downs in human relationships with warmth, wit and refreshing insight ... Drawing on chapters from her own family history, Fox shines a piercing light into the wreckage of the past and illuminates what she terms 'the great, bottomless, complex, consuming love between mothers and daughters.' ... Fox's narrative flits between past and present to tell two tales in tandem, but it also makes effective use of flash-forwards to reveal roads that will be taken and pitfalls that lie ahead. Shifts in perspective create a more comprehensive picture, while the quirkily descriptive prose adds color and mystery. This could have been a jarring clash of voices and a messy fusion of the historical and the modern. Instead it is an artfully constructed and richly absorbing novel that shows how love is strengthened, not weakened, over distance and time.
In many ways, Send for Me is indeed an anthropological excavation; its preoccupations are many and sometimes diffuse but it is haunted throughout by the endlessly fascinating question of inheritance. How much of our stories — and which parts — truly belong to us? ... the book is a real achievement — beautifully written, deeply felt, tender and thoughtful ... Fox’s prose is rhythmic and gorgeous, and the portrait she paints of Annelise’s life — and all she comes to lose — is richly textured ... The storytelling is patient, generous, at moments even languid ... vivid depiction of a family’s heartbreak, its rending and rebuilding.
Fox deftly moves between generations as she illuminates the ways that choices echo through the lives of those who came after. This thoughtful, character-driven exploration of the unbreakable bonds of motherhood will appeal to fans of Alice Hoffman and Elizabeth Berg.
