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Title: The Girls from Corona del Mar
Author: Rufi Thorpe
Narrator: Rebecca Lowman
Format: Unabridged
Length: 9 hrs and 36 mins
Language: English
Release date: 02-25-16
Publisher: Random House AudioBooks
Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 1 votes
Genres: Fiction, Contemporary
Publisher's Summary:
Longlisted for the 2014 Dylan Thomas Prize.
Mia and Lorrie Ann are lifelong friends: hard-hearted Mia and untouchably beautiful, kind Lorrie Ann. While Mia struggles with a mother who drinks, a pregnancy at 15, and younger brothers she loves but can't quite be good to, Lorrie Ann is luminous, surrounded by her close-knit family, immune to the mistakes that mar her best friend's life.
Until a sudden loss catapults Lorrie Ann into tragedy: things fall apart and then fall apart further - and there is nothing Mia can do to help. And as good, kind, brave Lorrie Ann stops being so good, Mia begins to question just who this woman is and what that question means about them both.
A staggeringly arresting, honest novel of love, motherhood, loyalty, and the myth of the perfect friendship that moves us to ask ourselves just how well we know those we love, what we owe our children and who we are without our friends.
Members Reviews:
An emotional, harrowing ride between two women
I purchased this book because I had lived in Corona del Mar, a delightful little town in Southern California. Expecting a coming-of-age book about two teenage girls, I was unsurprised by the first few chapters. Ms. Thorpe's description of CDM was so accurate that memories came flooding back. In the nineties, CDM was what I called a toy town. Houses and streets were tiny, and it was not unusual for neighbors' lives to intertwine.
Suddenly, the story changed. Lorrie Ann, was considered by her best friend Mia, to be the special one, the golden girl, while Mia was in her mind, the plodding inferior. Mia idolized Lorrie and felt almost honored to have such a friend.
A series of tragedies befall Lorrie, and as the girls became adults, they grow apart. The story moves far from CDM, as Lorrie, now a drug addict, and her lover (?) travel to India. Mia and her scholarly boyfriend live in Turkey, both with the goal of being experts in the classics.
Eventually Lorrie appears almost unannounced at Mia's flat in Turkey. At this point, the story takes a turn which made it difficult for me to read more than a chapter or two at a time. The emotions between the two women were almost unbearably raw. I wondered if they had ever been friends. Lorrie, the hardcore addict, and Mia, the somewhat pompous academic, each passing judgment on the other, both of whom were partially correct.
Wanting to give nothing away, I thought the book ended as it had to.
The Girls from Corona del Mar is a book that does not disappear from memory after the last page. It contains much to think about, especially about one's friends. How well do we really know them?
Inanna in us all
Don't misunderstand my 3-star rating -- I would (and often do) recommend this book. It's ambitious and largely relatable, powerful and beautiful.
This story of two women's lives and their evolving relationship with each other is a good wake-up call to so many social ills, and a surprisingly frank observation of self and interpersonal relationships.
The first half of the book is especially compelling. The characters experience life in very common ways, and the story is told with heart. Ominous foreshadowing and excellent imagery abound (the vultures of bad luck, the hammer to the toe, the narrator's cold black heart).
The second half is a bit more tedious, albeit still an interesting read, and very much true to the spirit of the first half.
