Maureen Hartman’s latest novel, Perception, is a moving journey of self-discovery and hidden truth
that will keep you reading to the last page. We meet Mia Ellis just as she receives a call from her estranged brother TJ. Her father, Ellis, has had a debilitating stroke, and she needs to decide whether to visit him. She takes herself by surprise when she sets out on her motorcycle for Meridian, Indiana and the unresolved questions that await her there. Upon seeing Ellis in his hospital bed, her long-withheld resentment and anger explodes in a series of questions and accusations he can’t reply to, and, as she leaves, she whispers to him, that “I have always hated you.” We then go back and experience Mia’s life in Haiti and learn why Mia is so wary of emotion and connection. We witness the hardships and horrors of her life there, and her harrowing journey to the United States. The mystery of her father is a continuous thread woven throughout her life, but we have to wait with her to find the answers. She hides herself away because of her past, reserving her emotions, compartmentalizing her life, and staying aloof even from those who love her. The beginning of her tumultuous relationship with TJ and Ellis is revealed, as is Mia’s understanding of their estrangement. Having come full circle, we find Mia desperately searching for her father’s medical directive and stumbling across his journals. As she reads the firsthand account of what her mother never told her, she realizes more and more just what she has and how wrong she’s been.
Perception is a gripping narrative that will tug at your heartstrings and keep you reading to the last page. It is an exploration of how perception, language, and information filtered through others can affect the trajectory of one’s life, and how questioning our preconceptions can be painful but also lead to understanding and reconnection. Mia’s self-reflection as she discovers her father’s true story is moving, and watching her growth and acceptance kept me turning the pages. I read this in nearly one sitting; I couldn’t put it down. The prose is beautiful but never got in the way of the story, and the author’s ability to capture not only Mia but all the characters so fully left me completely immersed in the narrative. Re-living the past is often a painful journey, but life can be "like picking flowers in the dark", and "you never know what you’ve got until the light of day".
I highly recommend this book, and I give it a solid five stars.
[Trigger warning: child sexual assault and rape]
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