Book Review: "Once in a Blue Moon" by Eileen Gouge

Once in a Blue Moon
Eileen Goudge
Vanguard Press
ISBN: 978-1-59315-534-6

What happens in to children in their earliest years of life often stays with them throughout their lives, frequently changing the direction or course of action long after. In author Eileen Goudge’s new book, Once in a Blue Moon, the difficult first few years of life were critical to the aftermath of two sisters’ futures. Elder sister Lindsay, though only a child herself, was charged with taking care of toddler Kerrie Ann, while their drug-addicted mother largely abandoned them. The only real care taker they had was Miss Honi Love, an exotic dancer who lived in the same apartment complex.

Eventually the sisters were placed in separate foster care facilities, and from there, went on to lead two completely different lives as a result. Yet each was marked with an indelible imprint of those early years as a family. Years pass, and readers meet the sisters later. One is the product of loving parents who have passed on but left elder sister Lindsay with a home and land adjacent to the Pacific Ocean. She owns a local bookstore, and though struggling financially to keep her business going, has a relatively stable life.

On the other hand, younger sister Kerrie Ann has suffered the more difficult (and typical) foster child experience, and made a lot of bad choices to boot. She’s a single mother and recovering drug addict who has lost custody of her daughter. She is struggling to regain some semblance of a “normal” life for herself and her child, but her one chance may depend on re-establishing contact with her older sister, whom she hasn’t seen since childhood. Clearly, the central question raised by the novel is what cost will this process exact from each of them?

This re-uniting of sisters is the heart and soul of Once in a Blue Moon, a book that will draw readers in with its strong characterization. Conflict comes in the clash of lifestyles, even as the two sisters seek to gain what they have been missing for so long--a sense of family and belonging. Along the way, in addition to facing the battle for child custody, there are issues of a fight to maintain the elder sister’s land in a corporate grab (by eminent domain or any means possible) to build a golf course that might benefit the community financially. There are also romantic dalliances by both sisters with men both right and wrong for them.

In the end, however, the story is about what makes a family, and the compromise it takes to help each member find what they have been searching for. Once in a Blue Moon is a book that will have readers rooting for the underdog, and reflecting on their own family circumstances. It’s a book with a big heart, and that’s what true families are all about.