Just Jennifer

Lacy Eye by Jessica Treadway (Grand Central, March 10, 2015)

Three years again, Hanna and Joe were beaten in their home and left for dead: Joe did not survive, but Hanna did.  Their youngest daughter Dawn’s boyfriend Rud was tried and convicted of the attack and murder; charges were brought against Dawn but she was not indicted.  Rud has just won an appeal and a new trial.  Hanna, who has no memory of the attack, vows to remember what happened that night to ensure Rud is kept imprisoned for the rest of his life.  Upon hearing this news, Dawn returns home to live with her mother and slowly, memories return to Hannah, memories that make her questions everything she thought she knew about her daughter, about herself and about her family. 

Although readers may realize from the beginning there is only one inevitable conclusion, Hanna’s trip of discover of the family of which she was proud and discovery of herself, is a fascinating journey. When Dawn was first diagnosed with amblyopia or “lazy eye”, she thought the doctor said “lacy eye” and it became Joe’s catch phrase for when he felt his family was not seeing things clearing or trying to fancy up a situation.  Hanna spends much of her time reliving Dawn’s childhood and teenage years, fraught with teasing and bullying, to see where she may have gone wrong, but misses where she went right with her older daughter, Iris, even though she didn’t lavish Irish with as much attention growing up aw she did Dawn, yet when all is said and done and it is Hanna who needs saving from her memories, her guilt, herself, it is Iris who steps up and provides support, much to Hanna’s surprise.  Even more than the story of a family in crisis, this is the story of a woman in crisis, alone, having lost the person on whom she could truly depend and finding strength within herself and from unexpected people to continue to life safe and free from guilt.