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    The Map of True Places: A Novel
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    The Map of True Places: A Novel
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    The Map of True Places: A Novel
    Ebook469 pages7 hours

    The Map of True Places: A Novel

    By Brunonia Barry

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    “Masterfully woven…The Map of True Places is a gripping quest for truth that kept me reading at the edge of my seat to the very last page.”
    —Lisa Genova, author of Still Alice

     

    Brunonia Barry, author of the beloved New York Times and international bestseller The Lace Reader is back with The Map of True Places, an emotionally resonant novel of tragedy, secrets, identity, and love. The moving and remarkable tale of a psychotherapist who discovers the strands of her own life in the death of a troubled patient, The Map of True Places is another glorious display of the unique storytelling prowess that inspired Toronto’s Globe and Mail to exclaim, “Brunonia Barry can write. Boy can she write.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateMay 4, 2010
    ISBN9780061992506
    Unavailable
    The Map of True Places: A Novel
    Author

    Brunonia Barry

    Born and raised in Massachusetts, Brunonia Barry studied literature and creative writing at Green Mountain College in Vermont and at the University of New Hampshire. After nearly a decade in Hollywood, Barry returned to Massachusetts, where, along with her husband, she founded an innovative company that creates award-winning word, visual and logic puzzles. Happily married, Barry lives with her husband and her twelve-year old Golden Retriever named Byzantium

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    Reviews for The Map of True Places

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      Zee Finch loses her mother at a young age and ends up spending part of her childhood stealing boats— which has earned her the nickname Trouble. She's now a psychotherapist and is about to marry Michael. But the suicide of her patient Lilly throws Zee into emotional chaos and takes her to Salem after Lilly's funeral where her father, Finch, long ago diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, has been hiding how sick he really is. His longtime companion, Melville, has moved out, and it now falls to Zee to help her father.
      Zee becomes overwhelmed by her new role as caregiver, and becomes uncertain about her future. She meets Hawks and they set out on a relationship that brings back memories of a story her mother wrote. There are several twists and turns in this story. You feel for Zee struggling to do the right thing for Finch and also for Melville who loves Finch dearly yet has been thrown out of the house by Finch. I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would.
    • 4/5
      Not having read Barry's previous novel, The Lace reader, I didn't know what to expect from The Map of True Places. What I found was a book that hooked me from the start and kept my interest until the last page. When Zee Finch, a Boston psychotherapist, learns that her patient Lilly Braedon has jumped off the Tobin Bridge into the Mystic River below, she is heartsick. The suicide of her patient brought back all the feelings of guilt she experienced when her bipolar mother commit suicide years ago. She felt in both case as if she could have done more second guess herself over her actions.Zee returns to Salem for the funeral and while she is there she visits her father. She finds him in bad shape; his live in love has left and his Parkinson's disease has advanced a lot since she last saw him. Zee takes a leave of absence from her practice with Dr. Liz Mattei to care for her father and in the process comes to some realizations in her life. Zee had always done what was expected of her but now Zee questions what she really wants out of life and tries to find her true place in the world; not an easy process. It involves a lot of introspection and re examination of the sometimes painful past. Barry tells the story in different time frames, going back and forth from the past to the present, slowly giving the reader more layers of the back story of her parents relationships, her mother's illness and fairy tale writings. A lot of the present day story involves her father's disease and how she deals with it. I found this part of the book very realistic. One of the things I enjoyed the most about the book was the setting so aptly described by Barry that I felt as if I were walking the streets of Salem along with Zee. Barry did a wonderful job of fleshing out all the characters in the story and weaving all the plot threads together while still managing to throw in a few twists along the way. I definitely would recommend the book and plan to read The Lace Reader in the near future.Disclosure: a review copy of the book was provided by William Morrow through LibraryThing's early reviewers program.
    • 4/5
      The Map of True Places is the story of Zee Finch, a psychotherapist whose world is shaken up when one of her patients commits suicide. Zee goes home to Salem and discovers that her father Finch’s Parkinson’s disease is much more advanced than she’d thought. Zee’s mother killed herself when Zee was twelve and now Finch’s longtime companion has moved out. Zee extends her visit in Salem to care for her ailing father. While there, Zee must confront her unresolved issues about both her mother and her patient’s suicides.The plot of this book moved fairly slowly in the first two-thirds of the book and then turned into a roller coaster of twists and turns in the last third. For me, the pay-off in the last third was worth the wait – I didn’t see any of the twists coming. I haven’t read Brunonia Barry’s first book, The Lace Reader. From what I understand a few of the main characters in that book are minor characters in this book but it’s not a sequel. I don’t feel like I missed anything not having read the first book.
    • 5/5
      This could have been a really depressing book. After all the subjects are suicide, bi-polar disorder, Parkinson's disease, betrayal, and depression. Instead of leaving the reader reaching for the Prozac bottle, the story ends leaving the reader with a tad bit of a letdown--(more on that later).It is a great story about a story, and about a young woman's search for herself, her mother, and her future. Zee Finch is a pyschologist whose patient (a young woman close to her age) jumps off a bridge when she should have been at her appointment with Zee. Since Lilly (the patient) reminds Zee of her own mother whose bi-polar disease caused her to commit suicide when Zee was 13, our heroine is doubly bummed. In addition, her fiance is pressuring her to make plans for their scheduled wedding and Zee seems unable to make any decisions.She instead chooses to go home to see her father, whom everyone calls "Finch," a noted Hawthorne scholar who lives directly across the street from Hawthorne's house in Salem. Finch suffers from Parkinson's disease, and it becomes immediately evident to Zee that his condition has dramatically worsened. The story that follows is touching. To tell the rest of the story here would be to ruin an excellent read. The short chapters, the crisp prose, the building suspense surrounding several characters, all lend themselves to keeping the reader awake long past bedtime.I almost wish this book didn't have an epilogue. Although the story's ending is quite well-done, the epilogue seems to have been written to answer all the questions a reader might have about "what happened after that?" Instead of leaving us with a delightful suspicion and willing to use our own imagination to write several different scenarios of what might have been, the author seem intent upon tying up every last string so everything can be shoved neatly into the little package. Still in all, it is a book worth savoring.
    • 4/5
      In the end I really enjoyed this book. The characters and setting were great from the beginning. I had a bit of trouble when the author would backtrack a couple of chapters later. I did get used to it though. I really liked the story line and the ending was perfect. It took awhile to really become addicted to the book...just about halfway though I felt myself being pulled in.
    • 3/5
      This second novel by Barry has a lot in common with her first, "The Lace Reader." On the plus side, this means it features a compelling female protagonist and great descriptions of Salem, Mass. On the down side, that means it also includes a draggy middle section and names so improbably ridiculous that they detract from the story.
    • 5/5
      I want to live in a Brunonia Barry novel. She is amazing at creating a sense of place in her novels, and while Salem is less of a character in its own right in The Map of True Places than it was in The Lace Reader, it is still an integral part of the story.Zee, a successful therapist in Boston, returns to Salem to care for her ailing father and to take a little breather from work in the wake of the suicide of one of her patients. Once she arrives, she finds her father, once a leading Hawthorne scholar, living alone across from the House of Seven Gables, having kicked out Melville, his longtime partner. While trying to reconcile her father with Melville, once the love of his life, she drags up quite a bit about both men’s pasts and the past of her late mother. Getting over her mother’s suicide, which Zee witnessed, has been a lifelong journey for Zee, one that has not been helped by the similarities between her mother and the patient Zee so recently lost.Barry’s gift for layering stories is clear as she melts the pasts of so many characters together into one cohesive narrative. Some of the connections between the characters run much deeper than they seem, and even though the same events are looked at or played out multiple times, there is a new revelation with every telling and an ending that left be both in awe and misty-eyed.There are a few characters from The Lace Reader that make appearances in The Map of True Places, and there is talk of the work done on Yellow Dog Island. All of this is either fully explained or unimportant to this story. Reading the former is not a prerequisite for reading the latter.Book source: ARC received from the publisher, William Morris, through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program.
    • 4/5
      Being a therapist would be a difficult job for anyone, but for Zee Finch, whose patient's recent suicide eerily echoes that of her mother's, it's become haunting and nearly impossible. In Brunonia Barry's The Map of True Places, Zee attempts to unravel the deeper truths about her patient, her mother, and herself.It's hard for me to categorize this novel: it's a mystery, it's literary fiction, it's a thriller, it's even a bit fantastical. I described the main plotline above, but there are sidelines dedicated to Zee's parents' relationship, her mother's fairy tales, and Melville's life. Unexpectedly, at least for me, was how much space in the book is dedicated to the hard realities of caring for an ailing parent. I think others in the same situation would appreciate the understanding portrait Barry paints here.One of the parts I found most affirming was seeing Zee come into herself and discover what she really wants out of life. She's a very well-realized character and I found myself identifying with her, even though my life has been happy and hers traumatic. She works to overcome the past and the present, and though it's not all tied together with a neat little bow, it is realistic and kinda uplifting.I also really liked how this book took place in the same version of Salem we were introduced to in The Lace Reader. Mentions of Towner and Rafferty, as well as appearances by Ann Chase, were delightful. By no means do you have to read The Lace Reader first, but it did enhance my enjoyment a bit (especially getting to know Ann better--she's definitely one of my fave characters, and I hope Barry's third book will be about her).And it's a good litmus test: if you liked The Lace Reader, it's probably an indication that you'll like The Map of True Places, too. It had a lot of the same themes: emotionally/mentally-scarred mothers, distant/absent fathers, a distinct New England feel, a family secret, even a kind of unreliable main character. While it's true she does this really, really well, it would also be cool to see a major departure from this formula in her next novel.I also noticed that Barry seems to delight in tricking you into thinking the male (romantic) leads may have done something "bad," and then cooking up an explanation for it that lets them off the hook. I for one think it would make her books that much more complex and interesting if she let these guys actually DO what they were accused of, and still be accepted/loved by the female main characters. Otherwise, they seem a little too good to be true, honestly. That may be just me! (And her "gotcha!"-type endings may wear a little thin for some, though this one I saw coming.)A strong sophomore offering from Ms. Barry!I received this ARC from William Morrow through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers Program. The Map of True Places comes out on May 4, 2010.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the characters in the book. I enjoyed the writing style. However, the book got jumbled for me trying to deal with too many issues:Mental illnessRole of caregiverAbuseMarriageInfidelitySuicideDoctor-patient relationshipLoveIt was just too much for me. I would have enjoyed seeing fewer of the story lines but each one more developed.
    • 5/5
      This is a complex novel, tying together events, characters, and storylines in a seamless and highly readable manner. The story of Zee Finch, a psychologist dealing with her own issues and crisis, takes place in Salem, Massachusetts.'The Map of True Places' is my favorite sort of story - one in which you become so immersed in the lives of the characters that you learn things without it feeling like learning at all. After reading, I know much more about Parkinson's disease, Salem, bipolar disorder, and celestial navigation than I did at the book's start. A story I will highly recommend!
    • 4/5
      "Only when one learns to determine his true location by looking at the stars will he be able to chart an accurate course to his final destination."I enjoy a book that can pull you in to the story in the first chapter. The Map Of True Places pulled me immediately. I am unsure what I thought this book would be about but it managed to take me along on it's wild and twisted journey. Barry included enough mystery to keep me interested through out.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book despite the often fantastical turns the story took. No spoilers. The relationships between the characters makes for a relatable read and the Hawthorne, Salem and Melville references enhance the setting. Perfect to throw in your beach or pool bag this summer.
    • 3/5
      I felt that this book was very similar to The Lace Reader but paled in comparison. Although the subject matter was interesting, the setting beautiful, the characters well realized, and the story moved along well, it did not captivate me. Perhaps I expected too much. Perhaps I found The Lace Reader so unique that nothing would live up to it. I think that this writer has enormous talent and would truly like to see her expand her horizons. I will definitely continue to read her work and look forward to her next book.
    • 4/5
      I'm a sucker for novels featuring locales I am familiar with so this book already had an edge. Also, I have enjoyed other books by Brunonia Barry. I enjoyed the story line and the way it was presented. Some of it did get a little tedious; however, the characters are likable and have some depth to them. Enjoyed the unexpected twists at the end.
    • 5/5
      I just love a book full of several characters with complicated interwoven realationships, allusions to classic literature, and symoblism worth pondering long after the last page. I found myself truly taking my time and just enjoying the writing.
    • 5/5
      This story was, in many ways, very reminiscent of this author's first book, The Lace Reader. I welcomed the return to Salem and to many of the people and places of the first book while enjoying this new story totally on its own merit.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book. I found it hard to put down. The characters were believeable and likeable. The story was compelling. However, I often felt like some of the details were off -- how can someone have a birthday at the end of August if her mom was telling her husband she was pregnant in the summer -- either she was REALLY pregnant when the news came out, or she was pregnant for a year? Little things like that distracted me. Overall an enjoyable read though.
    • 4/5
      Enjoyed this more than her previous book Lace Reader. Takes places in Salem, MA, so she is a local author for me. Story includes caring for ailing parent, career decisions, marraige choices. Touches on a little bit of everything. Moves along well with likable characters.
    • 3/5
      On the whole I enjoyed this story. I never felt fully immersed in it, the way I sometimes do with a book, but it was sufficiently interesting to keep my attention. I liked the coastal Massachusetts setting (I'd never actually realised that Salem was on the coast, for some reason...) and the interweaving of nautical navigational facts. Wasn't so keen on the insistence that human beings can't get through life without hours of therapy, though. Zee seemed to treat her own therapy sessions as though they were a regular, essential thing: like a car service or a dental check-up. And yet one of the messages of the book was that therapy doesn't always work and, indeed, the main character manages to work out her problems without the help of therapy in the end.
    • 4/5
      Another great book by Brunonia. I love that she weaves characters from the Lace Reader into this story. So easy to read and so many likabale characters, even if you saw the ending 1/2 way through. The setup was just too pat. But still it was a good love story, which I like to read.
    • 4/5
      The Map of True Places is the second novel that I've read by Brunonia Barry. The first was The Lace Reader, which I read last year and enjoyed. Both of Barry's novels are set in Salem Massachusetts, the hometown of Brunonia Barry and rich with culture and history that she weaves into her novels. The Map of True Places, is a moving story of Zee, a young psychotherapist who finds connection and self discovery through the death of one of her patients. Zee is in a place in her life where she seems to have it all, a wonderful career with a great mentor Dr. Mattei, a fiance and family that love her. Things change drastically in Zee's life after the death of her patient and Zee must also confront the declining health of her adored father Finch. Zee's life goes off course and she must find a way to get herself back on track and find answers to many questions from her past. Barry has a way with storytelling that immerses you as a reader right into the story. I found the characters to be interesting and well written and the background of Salem and navigational themes held together the story. If you've read The Lace Reader, you will find some of the characters mentioned along the way. I enjoyed The Lace Reader and was surprised to find that I enjoyed The Map of True Places even more. This would make a great book to discuss with a book club as there is so much to discuss with themes related to secrets, identity, love, family, suicide, and much more.
    • 5/5
      Mystic sea ports.Hawthorne.Witches.Civil Liberties.Honestly, what is there not to love about Salem, MA?For Zee Finch, there’s more to add under the “not” column. A fading father, a memory of a mother gone, a harbor town that simply holds too many reminders of a less than stellar youth.So, it is with heavy baggage and much regret that she finds herself dislodged from far away Boston and set on a rip current back to her homeland. It is the ghost of family past coupled with a much more recent case gone horribly wrong that upends her beautiful engagement and career in the big city where her star is rising as an up and coming clinical psychotherapist.Parkinson’s has settled in with her father, resulting in the disintegration of his longtime relationship with dear friend and lover, Melville. Distraught and dragged down by the sudden need for her character change from distant daughter to constant caregiver, Zee’s entire world is upended and sent straight back to a fun-house version of her youth. She is forced to come face to face with the psychology and mythology of her past, the town’s past and the much more recent past of her troubled client.The silver lining to the dark storm cloud, is a mysterious man working on one of the ships in the port. Sunny and carefree in the way only old world sailors can be, Hawk is the picture of everything Zee has ever needed, capable of teaching her not only to read the stars but also to follow her heart. Of course, every storm cloud’s silver lining eventually sees another rainy day and not all parties are what they initially appear to be.Barry’s book came to me this past summer and it’s taken me entirely too long to read it. I’m kicking myself, now, for leaving it for so long. Of course, sometimes books have a way of waiting for the best time to be read. October, Salem or Atlanta, tends to be a great time for curling up with a good book. Of course, adding the mystery of an old sea yarn, never hurt a good Autumn-in-New-England read either.(Try turning on some Barefoot Truth or Great Big Sea while you’re reading and I promise you won’t be disappointed.)Growing up very close to Salem, hoping that every Neo-Crucible or Deliverance Dane anecdote will capture the town’s true awesomeness, I’m always disappointed.Until now.Barry gets it and here’s why: She tells stories like a New Englander. She writes about town drama and the colors of houses on the wharf, not, as southerners and midwesterners do, for poetic effect, but because these things have significance to ten generations looking back and it’s just a matter of fact. A north shore boatman retells a story because people have to know that “this happened” or because they should know “what went on here” as opposed to someone chatting about meandering minutia, whiling away of the hours in a hot southern sun, under parasols, drinking sweet tea.In True Places, Barry tells a sea story and a T-story, weaving past and present with a classic Yankee attention to “only the good stuff”. I’m about halfway into her first book, The Lace Reader, and can attest to the same being said through both works. This storyteller gets two very enthusiastic thumbs up from a fairly-hard to please northerner.
    • 4/5
      Summary: Zee Finch has her life planned out. She is a successful psychologist and is engaged to the perfect catch. But her perfect life starts to unravel after the suicide of one of her patients. Zee travels to her father’s home in Salem to recoup after Lily’s death and finds that her father’s Parkinson’s disease has progressed much faster that he had let on. As she deals with these changes in her life, she starts to discover that maybe she needs a new plan.My Thoughts: I liked this book. It had some darkness to it, but I was interested from the beginning, and grew to like it the more I read. I thought that most of the characters were well written and interesting. The descriptions of Finch’s struggles with Parkinson’s was very well researched and described. Her knowledge of that disease was amazing.I enjoyed the several story lines, such as Lily’s suicide and Zee’s mother’s mysterious history. I loved Melville and perked right up when we followed his story. I also really liked Adam and he is the reason I was hooked for the second half of the book.My only problem with this book was the main character, Zee. I don’t think I liked her very much. Maybe I just wasn’t interested in her because it seemed like she wasn’t that interested in her life either. I know she was emotional about Lily and that she loved and cared for her father. But she was clearly depressed and therefore depressing. Some of this cleared up towards the middle of the book, and she became more likeable, but I guess my original opinion of her stuck.I like an ending that can wrap up the main ideas of a story AND give you a glimpse into the future of the characters….. good or bad. This story had that kind of ending, and lightened some of the darkness.
    • 4/5
      I think I enjoyed The Map of True Places more than The Lace reader. It's an easy fast read, with an inventive plot and likeable characters. Certainly page turning and entertaining
    • 3/5
      Zee Finch goes from stealing boats as an adolescent to being a respected psychotherapist as an adult. After the death of a patient she decides to return home to Salem. Although she makes this move to try and deal with things in her life, it only seems to make matters worse as her fiancée calls off the engagement just as she is discovering that her father, ailing with Parkinson’s disease is more ill than she anticipated.

      This book had many similarities to THE LACE READER, Barry’s previous book, but I found I enjoyed this one more. It was focused on relationships, caring and healing and that loved ones are often a more important part of our lives than we admit.
    • 4/5
      This is a story of Zee. A young woman who grew up in Salem, in a house with a past. Her mother died when Zee was young, and she grew up living with her father, and his lover. Life after the death of her mother, was easier, and more settled than life with her had ever been. Zee's mother suffered from bi-polar disorder, and the family suffered along with her. Zee grew up and became a psycho-therapist. She treated those who suffered as her mother did, and perhaps was more empathetic than others might have been. Perhaps too much so. The death of one of her patients, sent Zee into a downward spiral. One was was all the worse because her father was now ill as well. The story once again takes place in Salem, Massachusetts ...a place I love. We revisit people and places from the last book, [The Lace Reader], but this is in no way a sequel. It is a strong, solid, stand alone story of a Zee. A young woman who finally finds her true self. Recommended
    • 4/5
      Great story! I loved the fact that character's from The Lace Reader popped up in this book. Family drama with a twist. I can't wait for Ms. Barry's next one.
    • 4/5
      Consider a family with secrets, throw in good intentions, fateful circumstances, mental & physical illness, and you have the nucleus of this story. That Zee, our heroine, has any mental health (after all she's witnessed & endured by the end of the book) is a miracle. I love the setting of Salem and the symbolism of maps & sextants; how difficult it is to navigate life & "find our way home." I've lived long enough to recognize that life is crazy & rarely turns out the way we expect it to, so the twists & turns of this story don't bother me. I have to admit that I guessed Melville's big secret about 1/2 way through the book. A nice rainy weekend read.
    • 4/5
      From my blogI wanted something different to read, that wasn't y usual mystery genre, and I was able to pick a great one. This has been on my to read list for over 3 years. I highly recommend this one for book clubs, so much to discuss. Zee is a psychiatrist that lost her mom to suicide and now has crossed the lines with a client that reminds her of her moms death. Unfortunately the suicide has impacted her and she takes time off to spend with her father. Her father had Parkinson's but she didn't realize how far the disease had progressed and now she wants to be his caregiver also. Is Zee helping or is she running away from life? "It's not down on any map; true places never are."-- Herman Melville This was a great quote from the book. Finding the place that you need to be and should be at the perfect moment. Realising you are living life for others instead of yourself. I enjoyed this thought that was in the background of the story. It also made you think if daughters try to relive our mothers lives. Each section in the book started with a quote or motivation around the stars, celestial navigation, which became a beautiful part of the story, you enjoyed the journey of understanding the stars. There was lots going on in The Map of True Places but a beautiful transition from one part of Zee's life to another, it captures you and makes you just want to continue reading. When Zee gets to her dad, she realizes he has broken up with his life partner but she remains close as they have been an important part of her life growing up. Both her and her dad have ended relationships, another life change. The bonus for me is there was a mystery element for Zee, I was shocked by it but loved how it really showed you, you never know who you will love. What a beautiful story of life, the sadness and beautiful parts of life and how all things connect, making you realize the world is smaller then we think.
    • 3/5
      Zee Finch is a respected psychotherepist. One of her patients jumps off a bridge and Zee puts her career on hold and returns home to care for her father and to find answers to her own mother's suicide.