Nov 13, 2010

The Transformation of Things by Jillian Cantor




The Transformation of Things
Author:  Jillian Cantor
Genre:  Women's Literature
Publisher:  HarperCollins
Date Published:  November 2nd 2010





“Is reality a dream, or are dreams our reality”

Life isn’t always grand when you’re part of the elite. Jennifer and Will are part of the upper society in their town of Deerfield. Will is a judge, and is never at home, and Jennifer plays tennis at the country club, is part of a Ladies Club. On the surface they are fine with their lives, so encumbered in it they don’t really realize that they aren’t happy. Then Will gets indicted on bribery charges, and things start becoming clear. Could this be the best thing to have happened to them? Jennifer slowly realizes what is important and how much they are missing with a meaningless life with the help of herbs and the sudden ability to get into peoples lives and minds through dreams.

The Transformation of Things is a cleverly written novel that is part fantasy. There is quite a bit of relatable things going on. Don’t we all get caught up on appearances, and the portrayal of over the top bliss? Though at the beginning things our hard, Jennifer finds out who her friends are, and what actually makes her happy. Author, Jillian Cantor adding these herbs giving Jennifer the ability to look into someone elses life and thoughts was brilliant, because with it she was able to have Jennifer discover what was really important, and to realize that everybody is not perfect, and life isn’t always as it seems.

Character wise I was glad to get to know Will. Usually in books that are about marriages and life in general have the husband come in and out of the story and really never get to know them, but with Will I really felt that Ms. Cantor put thought into who he was.

I really enjoyed how much emphasis she put on being a mother. The stress and feeling of losing oneself in motherhood was greatly touched upon in The Transformation of Things. As a mother of three I could relate to Lisa, Kat, and Kelly. The insight to their lives was a nice touch of my reality. It made me feel connected to the story.

Overall, I’m very pleased with The Transformation of Things. I read this over a two day period, closing the book satisfied.

2 comments:

  1. ooo, pretty cover. story sounds like a nice one with the fantasy bit you mentioned.

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  2. A bit of the magical thrown in can sometimes carry a nice story very well -- I look forward to taking a deeper look when next I'm in the bookshop.

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