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Count the Ways

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Count the Ways

November 2022

Every time I read a book by Joyce Maynard, I find myself remembering the characters for a very long time. This is exactly what happened when I read COUNT THE WAYS. It came out in hardcover last year, and I had every intention of reading it then. But life got in the way, so I read it this fall in anticipation of interviewing Joyce. It was billed as her most ambitious novel to date, and indeed it is. The themes that I have come to love in her books are there --- family in all its messiness.

Here we get to know a young couple, Eleanor and Cam, who meet at a crafts fair in Vermont in the early ’70s. They both love the arts; she writes and draws, and he makes wooden bowls. I confess that right from the start I found myself wondering how Cam was going to support his family with his craft. It ends up that Eleanor quickly learned the same thing! They go on to have three children --- two daughters and a spirited boy. Life is good for them, and while everything is not perfect, family is what holds them together. That is, until their lives are shattered as an accident happens that harms one of the children when Cam was to be watching them. This causes an irreparable strain on the marriage.

As the decades move on, the family drifts apart and then comes together only to be ripped apart again. We smile with them. We ache with them. And we see in them the reality of what life is --- messy and unpredictable. I was happy to learn during our recent “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event with Joyce that she is working on a sequel. I really want to see where these people end up!

Count the Ways
by Joyce Maynard

  • Publication Date: July 5, 2022
  • Genres: Fiction, Women's Fiction
  • Paperback: 480 pages
  • Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
  • ISBN-10: 0062398288
  • ISBN-13: 9780062398284