Blessed or cursed by the choices we make
PROLIFIC writer Kristin Hannah’s original version of Firefly Lane (now a highly enjoyable major Netflix series) first came out in 2008 and has seen several reprints; the latest being at the end of last year.
Hannah has penned more than 20 books and her popularity as an accessible author is indisputable, with her books being selected by many international book clubs and appearing on newspapers’ top selling lists.
This coming of age saga may be almost 500 pages of small print but it is enticingly readable. It spans more than 30 years – starting off in 1974 when Kate Malarkey and Tully Hart meet.
Kate is not the most popular girl at school where she is in Grade 8. Tully, the “coolest girl” moves in across the street and what’s more she wants to be her friend.
The beautiful sexy teenager seems to have it all – looks, brains and ambition. The two girls, on the surface, seem as different as can be.
Kate is deeply embedded within the bosom of a loving family who thwart her every move, and is definitely not cool; the glamorous Tully, struts around in the shortest of shorts, expertly applied make-up and is virtually glittering; yet shrouded in mystery.
By the end of summer, differences aside, the pair are inseparable.
From the word go, Tully desperately seeks affirmation from all concerned. Abandoned by her hippie mother at an early age, she longs for unconditional love.
As we move to the glittering, big-hair era of the eighties, Tully searches for men to fill the massive void in her soul. Then, in the straitlaced ’90s, it is television news that consumes her life as a journalist. From New York to global hotspots, she follows her blind ambition. There’s fame and success but a deep sense of loneliness underlies it all.
Meanwhile, all Kate really wants is to fall in love and have children and live an ordinary life. In her own less demonstrative way, she is thus as driven as Tully but … marriage and motherhood change her forever and cause her to be envious of her BFF, who is now so renowned …
Yet for three decades, despite the jealousy, resentment, anger and even hurt, the pair support each other but then (as in so many of these tales) there’s a betrayal that rips their friendship apart … or can a lifelong friendship be saved from this seemingly irrevocable turn of events?
For anyone who lived through the heady decades of the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s this book will resonate as will the compelling story of loss, love and a generation of women who have been blessed and cursed by their choices. A great fireside read that stays with you for a long time.