Book Review: Lizzy and Jane

I laugh, because I went straight to Lizzy and Jane by Katherine Reay after I read The Hardest Peace thinking, "Surely this can't be any more sad than the last book." The irony is that Lizzy and Jane is about relationships and particularly one between two sisters, one of which has cancer. Although this story was fictional and not as raw and real as The Hardest Peace, it still pulled at my heart strings. I enjoyed it though, and I felt like reading The Hardest Peace before this book gave me a better understanding what Jane (the sister with cancer) was experiencing. This book was similar to Dear Mr. Knightly, because the main character, a NYC chef named Elizabeth ie. Lizzy, figures out shes been hiding her pain and loneliness in her career. Her Mom dies of cancer when she's young, her Dad can't handle it so he disappears from Lizzy mentally, and her sister (Jane) deserts her when her mom gets sick. The irony is she runs away from her problems loneliness in her hometown Seattle to NYC where she opens her restaurant, Feast, and discovers that not only is she lonely still, she feels no purpose in her life. Her food lacks quality and creativity and she's distant from everyone in her life. Her sister, Jane, is diagnosed with cancer and she is rocked. This is the situation with her mom all over again. Although she doesn't really have a relationship with her sister, she can't come to terms with losing another person. She leaves NYC for a short term trip to take care of her sister and her sister's family and finds purpose again. Through taking care of others, she forgets about herself and sees how she's been searching for the wrong things. It has a Christian perspective, but it is an undertone. The ending is really happy, so I enjoyed that too.