The Sum of our Sorrows by Lisette Brodey is a story of grief and its aftermath. When Abby Sheppard is killed in a car accident her husband and three daughters are bereft. The novel focuses on Lily, the eldest of the three daughters. At seventeen, she is in her final year at school with plans in place to study fashion at college.
Each character in the novel is distinct and each experiences grief and loss in a unique way. Dalton Sheppard has lost his wife, the mainstay of his life, a woman who softened the harsher edges of his personality. The youngest sister, twelve-year-old Willow, seems the most vulnerable. But despite the frictions between other family members, their care for Willow is one thing that binds them together and softens some of their interactions. Char (Charlotte), the middle sister, was in the car when her mother died; her loss is complicated by her guilt at surviving. And Lily has lost not only her mother but her dreams of the future. Dalton, in what he presents as providing stability for the family, demands that Lily withdraw her application to college and take over what were her mother’s domestic responsibilities. This changes the normal teenaged friction between Lily and Char, driving a wedge between them as Char sees Lily’s new role as Lily trying to impersonate their mother.
Dalton’s orders isolate Lily from all those who could provide her support. She has little time to spend with her friends especially as Dalton makes her give up the part-time job she enjoys. Harder even than the loss of her dreams for the future is his edict that Lily is to have no contact with her mother’s best friend, a woman with whom Lily had previously had a good relationship and who could have provided Lily with emotional support and practical help.
The novel traces how Lily and her family deal with their grief and the other trials that life forces on them and the way Lily tries to negotiate her way through the circumscribed life Dalton has forced on her. The questions underlying much of the novel is how much Lily can endure, whether her father will finally recognize the unfairness of the burdens he has placed on her and, if he doesn’t, what the ultimately cost will be to them all if it becomes too much for Lily and she leaves.
The characters are all well rounded and believable, even the obnoxious (to my mind) Dalton. The interactions between the sisters capture that mixture of love and annoyance so common in families. Their dialogue is realistic and skillfully reveals the speaker’s personality and motivations. And although the novel has a tragic beginning, there are increasing moments of happiness, hope and humour as the novel progresses.
The Sum of our Sorrows is an absorbing and ultimately uplifting novel with characters that the reader can care about, who stay in the mind after the book is closed.