Book Review: Life on a Refrigerator Door

chillibreeze writer — Vidya Prabhakar

Book – Life on the refrigerator door
Author – Alice Kuipers
Publisher – HarperCollins Publishers

Life on the refrigerator door is an easy to read, epistolary novel, written in an engaging style. It is a touching story of two powerful characters. The plot unfolds by means of a series of notes left on the fridge door by the characters. What other books may present in a lot of pages, perhaps in a weepy style, this book presents in the form of notes in a conversational style.

The book is divided not into chapters but broadly into months of an eventful year in the lives of Claire and her mother. Claire is a 15 year old who communicates with her mother, a single parent and an obstetrician, by way of leaving notes on the refrigerator door and vice versa. Their busy lives make it impossible for them to be at home at the same time. How life slips by them is the crux of the story.

Claire and her mother are the quintessential mother-daughter duo, who has their share of fights, resentments and expectations from each other. The notes they write to each other are happy, emotional, filled with anger or intimate. The notes from Claire reveal the needs of a typical teenager ranging from demands for allowance, clothes, and shoes to dating and accompanying angst and uncertainty to complaining about household chores to babysitting and resentment at parents being divorced. The notes from her mother range from relationship advice to assigning chores around the house to the hardships of single parenting and the guilt of not being there for the child at all times.

Sometimes, it takes a serious setback to examine life seriously. Such is the case for Claire and her mom, when her mother’s battle with breast cancer takes their relationship to a higher plane. Their relationship and love for each other grow deeper as they examine the fragility of life. The anxiety over illness, mood swings on account of treatment and therapy, Claire’s struggle with a broken heart, her mother’s self doubt at being able to pull through the illness and disappointment at not having lived her life to the fullest draw them closer and strengthen their bond further. How Claire rises to the occasion, grows overnight and handles her mothers passing on forms the last part of the book. The end is very touching as Claire comes to terms with her grief although she wishes she had more time with her mother.

Debutant author Alice Kuipers examines the intimate bond that connects mothers and daughters world over in this moving novel. The book, at just 220 pages, a one-hour read, told in broad strokes, is a clear example that good things come in small packages. A lot can be said is a few words!

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—About our writer:

Vidya says, "A Chartered Accountant by qualification and an avid reader, my other interests include needlework, baking, traveling, singing, reading up on Hinduism and learning about new cultures."

Book Review: Life on a Refrigerator Door

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