The Painted Table by Suzanne Field

 Poignant!

Description

A beautiful heirloom ingrained with family memory has become a totem of a life Saffee would rather forget—a childhood disrupted by her mother’s mental illness. 

Saffee does not want the table. By the time she inherits the object of her mother’s obsession, the surface is thick with haphazard layers of paint, and heavy with unsettling memories.

After a childhood spent watching her mother slide steadily into insanity, painting and re-painting the ancient table, Saffee has come to fear that seeds of psychosis may lie dormant within her. But as an adult with a family of her own, Saffee must confront her mother’s torment if she wants to defend herself against it.

Traversing four generations over the course of a century, The Painted Table is an epic portrait of inherited memory, proclivity, and guilt. It is a sprawling narrative affirmation that a family artifact—like a family member—can bear the marks of one’s entire past . . . as well as intimations of one’s redemption.

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Biography

Suzanne Field, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, has taught English as a Second Language in China, Ukraine, and Hawaii. She has also been a magazine editor and home-school teacher. She and her husband have five children and divide their time between Kansas and Hawaii where she is a tutor and mentor.



Contact the author:
https://www.facebook.com/SuzanneFieldThePaintedTable

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5314202.Suzanne_Field

My Review ~

The "painted table" originated in Norway, handcrafted from a birch tree, and passed down through family generations in America. A child found solace underneath the table, throughout frequent unpleasant experiences, most notably a prairie fire that threatened to burn everything in its wake. Resultant and convoluted events in her life affected Joann's coping mechanisms. She discovered love accompanied by mistrust, bore children left devoid of nurturing and affection, and upon receipt of the table, an obsession with it. 

Mentally agonizing memories from time spent beneath the table tormented her, as the table represented constant reminders of her past. Joann's painful existence was focused on the Norway table compelling her to irrationally paint and repaint the table in layers typical of the painful layers of her life. Each layer of paint appeared to intensify her anguish, releasing more irrational behavior. Paranoia presented itself in Joanna's early adulthood, and as told throughout The Painted Table a succession of events intensified into full-blown psychosis and schizophrenia.

Suzanne Field painted the layers of her characters comprehensively and with creativity. The development of those characters throughout the book represented a substantive view through the eyes of the mentally ill and those who surrounded her. The anguish these characters experienced was convincing and poignant. The author created expressive, imaginative portrayals of the various environments which gave credence to the believability of the story. I found myself becoming more and more engrossed as the story progressed. The Painted Table is an excellent chronicle of mental illness and its pervasive effects on the afflicted and those closest to them.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Thomas Nelson through LitFuse Publicity Group in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own, and no monetary compensation was received as a result of this review.