Sometimes a writer captures a character's voice so effectively that by the time you finish the book, you feel like you would recognize that character's foibles and mannerisms as well as you'd recognize your mother or your best friend. That's what it's like to get to know Isabel Moore in the pages of Lauren Fox's third novel, DAYS OF AWE. When you get to its last pages, you've spent a lot of time in Isabel's company (and, in a way, in Isabel's head, since she narrates the story), and you really feel like you know this character, warts and all.

For Isabel is, of course, far from perfect. She is mourning several things simultaneously and, as usual, doing an imperfect job with all of them. There's the relationship with her husband, which went from "good enough" to over in what seemed like the blink of an eye. There's the relationship with her 12-year-old daughter, which has suddenly become complicated and, at times, unbearable. There's her relationship with her mother, whose former strength and independence has been shattered by a recent stroke. And, of course, there's her relationship with her best friend and colleague, Josie, who died in a car crash just a year ago and whose death seems to have accelerated all these other forms of loss.

"...a beautiful, heartfelt and more than worthwhile novel.... DAYS OF AWE is about looking at the past with a mix of sentimentality and hard-won clarity. It’s also about filing away past experiences and either treasuring them or setting them aside, but finding new ways to move on and move ahead."

Isabel and Josie were two of a kind. Both teachers in a middle school outside Milwaukee, they delighted in having in-jokes and not taking the school bureaucracy --- or anything, really --- too seriously. But if Isabel were truly honest with herself (something that seems increasingly difficult lately), she might be able to admit that Josie had been struggling in the months before her death, that Josie hadn't been entirely the soul mate and confidante Isabel once knew and loved.

At times in Fox's nonlinear narrative, figuring out what was going on with Josie can seem like an exercise in frustration --- the non-chronological plot can seem like a deliberate attempt to stall or artificially build suspense around Josie's death and the events leading up to it. What's more, the short nonlinear chunks inevitably require contextualizing --- it's been 12 months since Josie's death, it's been two days since Josie's death, etc. --- which, unless the reader is attempting to construct a timeline, just serves to draw attention to the nonlinear structure as a largely nonessential construct.

That being said, DAYS OF AWE is still a beautiful, heartfelt and more than worthwhile novel. Isabel, in her mid-40s as the story unfolds, is a character whose inner worries and fixations will ring true for many readers. Glancing at herself in the mirror, she finds it remarkable that she has become, somehow, someone's mother. Going out on her first date since her separation from her husband evinces a potent mix of anxiety and desire. And trying (and largely failing) to relate to colleagues, new acquaintances or complete strangers with her quirky and irreverent sense of humor is just one of the things that makes Isabel feel like she's failing at so much of her life.

DAYS OF AWE is about looking at the past with a mix of sentimentality and hard-won clarity. It’s also about filing away past experiences and either treasuring them or setting them aside, but finding new ways to move on and move ahead.