When Jessica, a grieving widow, inherits an antique mall from her mother she also inherits the stallholders, an elderly, amoral, acquisitive, and paranoid collection.
When one of the vendors, a wily ex-con named Roxy, shoots her ex-husband, she calls on Jessica to help bury the body and soon Jessica is embroiled in cover-ups, lies, and misdirection. Into this mix comes Lizzie, Jessica’s late husband’s twelve-year-old daughter by his first marriage, who’s been dumped on Jessica’s doorstep by the child’s self-absorbed mother and it soon becomes apparent that Lizzie is as obsessed with material possessions as Jessica’s elderly tenants.
Why Stuff Matters is a compelling ode to possession, why people like things and the curious lengths they will go to keep them. Returning to her fictional Caprock, Waldo turns her wry wit on the lives of those afraid to let go.
When one of the vendors, a wily ex-con named Roxy, shoots her ex-husband, she calls on Jessica to help bury the body and soon Jessica is embroiled in cover-ups, lies, and misdirection. Into this mix comes Lizzie, Jessica’s late husband’s twelve-year-old daughter by his first marriage, who’s been dumped on Jessica’s doorstep by the child’s self-absorbed mother and it soon becomes apparent that Lizzie is as obsessed with material possessions as Jessica’s elderly tenants.
Why Stuff Matters is a compelling ode to possession, why people like things and the curious lengths they will go to keep them. Returning to her fictional Caprock, Waldo turns her wry wit on the lives of those afraid to let go.
My Thoughts:
When I was invited to review Why Stuff Matters I was instantly drawn by the unique premise of the Story. I thoroughly enjoyed this book set in the fictional town of Caprock, in small town texas. It is a difficult book to describe.
A cast of individual and unique characters make Why Stuff Matters an entertaining and amusig read about the price that we put on 'things'. Recently bereaved Jessica inherits an antique mall and the stallholders that go with it. All highly original characters and not without their problems and dramas. It is not about all of the older stallholders of the mall. Lizzie brings youth to the story and the interaction between her and the older generation, is insightful and very well done.
I loved everything about this book, the wry and witty anecdotes and the hilariously drawn characters. The quirkiness of the story, and the sentimental but not twee look at what value we put on our possessions.
Jen Waldo is an author that I would most certainly return to. I loved the originality of her writing and the stories she has to tell, and the points she has to make.
I really recommend this one as one of the more entertaining and uplifting books that you will read this year.
About the Author:
Jen Waldo has lived in Holland, Egypt, the UK, Scotland, Kuwait and Singapore, but now lives in her home Texas, where her novels are set.
She first began writing twenty five years ago and shortly afterwards she had a story picked up by The European and was shortlisted in a competition by Traveler. Her novel Disappearing Otis' won an honourable mention in the Indy Book Awards.
For Arcadia Books, Jen has written Old Buildings in North Texas and - to come - her second novel Why Stuff Matters.
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