Like Normal People

By: Karen E. Bender

Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan

A tour de force of literary craft and emotional resonance, Like Normal People charts a family constellation that revolves around an off-kilter center: Lena, who is 48 but mentally locked in childhood.

Moving deftly between present and past, the novel follows Lena's day-long escape from her residential home with her troubled 12-year-old niece. While this odd couple takes refuge on a honky-tonk southern California beach, Lena's widowed mother, Ella, goes in search of them. In the process, Ella relives her own life's dreams and disappointments: her marriage to a sweet, loving shoe salesman; her discovery of Lena's handicap and her aching attempts to give her daughter a "normal" childhood. For so long, Lena has been the focus of Ella's world. When Lena at last finds approximate normalcy - by marrying a man much like herself - Ella must contend with letting her daughter go.

Covering three entire lifetimes in the course of one day, Like Normal People is tender, often hilarious, and deeply moving. Bender brilliantly enters into the consciousness of three women at very different stages of life, each on a private search for love and acceptance. Like Normal People is a novel about desire, about what constitutes normality, and, most poignantly, about the ways in which a family finds its strength in the face of adversity.

©2000 Karen E. Bender (P)2016 Recorded Books

Excellent

That profound writing at the end--wow! Bender truly was in fine form. I'd say the author did a pretty good job of portraying these characters realistically given my own experience with the intellectually disabled community. She as always has the ability to descriptively engage her audience and keep them moving at a steady pace of involvement with the storyline. She is a very talented writer. The narrator was perfect for Lena but I deducted a star because she was a bit staccato in her reading and came off a bit harsh sounding.

A fantastic book! Must read!

This book brings to light the need for mentally challenged individuals to be treated as normal people. Also, the need to live their lives as normal people! This is a must read for everyone. Handicapped people shouldn’t be surrounded by ignorant people!