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And She Was
And She Was
Author: Cindy Dyson
Sweeping across centuries and into the Aleutian Islands of Alaska's Bering Sea, And She Was begins with a decision and a broken taboo when three starving Aleut mothers decide to take their fate into their own hands. Two hundred and fifty years later, by the time Brandy, a floundering, trashy, Latin-spewing cocktail waitress, steps ashore in the ...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9780060597719
ISBN-10: 0060597712
Publication Date: 1/1/2007
Pages: 304
Edition: Reprint
Rating:
  • Currently 3.2/5 Stars.
 29

3.2 stars, based on 29 ratings
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Book Type: Paperback
Other Versions: Hardcover
Reviews: Member | Amazon | Write a Review

Top Member Book Reviews

AZmom875 avatar reviewed And She Was on + 624 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I think the point of the review is to help other PBS readers decide if this is a book that they will enjoy. Life is too short to read bad books. This book is set in Alaska, and really makes you feel like have visited Alaska both past and present. This is a great complex story about the women of Alaska. You get a history lesson without feeling like you are getting a history lesson. The style of the author is not zippy, or zany, but it is deep, thinking, symbolic,and moving. It is 1986, Brandy our main character is new to Alaska, and needs to find some answers in her life. She is having sex by page 6 and doing coke by page 8. She does drugs often, and many others do as well. No one is ever accused of having a drug problem but they are often called Coke whores, which Brandy is not she claims. So really the issue with Brandy isnt that she has a drug problem, but more of a Who am I ? problem. Of course she will figure it out, but she has learn a few things from some natives, and their ancestors before she can do that.

So yes, this book is really worth reading if you can get past the constant partying.
truthsayer avatar reviewed And She Was on + 21 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
I loved this book. At first I thought it was chick lit which I hate but I realized it is about the spiritual evolution of a superficial cocktail waitress with a history of a mother unable to love and the alcoholic father who is destroyed by her mother. In reaction, she avoids loving anyone. She sees people able to love as weak. She has no deams and is only interested in the next snort of coke or man to screw. She comes to the Aleutian islands following a man. She doesn't love him but she needs him to help her define herself. She can't tolerate being alone by choice. She comes across the dark secret of 4 Aleutian women who are the decendants of 3 women who took control of their lives by breaking an Aleutian taboo of women hunting 250 years before. Breaking the taboo saves the lives of the children and villagers. These women continue the tradition by empowering their daughters with the secret even though the secret exacts a terrible price. Eventually, Brandy figures out their secret and that loving others isn't weakness. The secret empowers her to make her own decisions and makes choices about a future for herself without a man. The information about the culture and history of the Aleutians is fascinating.The characters are well drawn.I wish there were more books like this about women.
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