000			02067n a2200265 a 4500
001			036761
005			20231009193449.0
008			140408s2005 mau 000 1 eng
010			_a2005010333
020			_a9780618772100
050	0	0	_aPS3619.T744 _bT67 2005
082	0	0	_aFIC STR
100	1		_aStrayed, Cheryl _d, 1968-
245	1	0	_aTorch _c/ Cheryl Strayed.
260			_aBoston _b: Houghton Mifflin _c, 2005.
300			_avii, 322 p. _c; 24 cm.
520			_aA family founders after a mother's death in Strayed's beautifully observed debut. Teresa Rae Wood was a teen mother and an abused wife who escaped to Minnesota, fell in love, raised good kids and started hosting a radio program called Modern Pioneers. "Work hard. Do good. Be incredible," Teresa tells her listeners, because that's what she does-until she's diagnosed with cancer and learns she has only months to live. As her loving common-law husband, Bruce, and her children, Claire (a bright, responsible college senior) and Josh (a brooding 17-year-old) face Teresa's dying and death, Strayed shows how grief can divide people when they need each other the most. Bruce vows to kill himself, but then stumbles into a marriage with his neighbor; Claire drops out of school, cheats on her boyfriend and stops eating; Josh sells drugs and falls in love with a girl he quickly impregnates. The novel, like the family it portrays, loses its center after Teresa's death, as Bruce, Claire, and Josh (especially the latter two) push and pull at each other, reaching and only sometimes finding comfort and connection. Strayed's characters are real and lovable, even as they fail themselves and each other; even tertiary players feel fully realized. Though the subject is sad, the novel is not without humor; it shimmers with a humane grace.
650		4	_aRadio broadcasters _z-United States _v--Biography
650		0	_aCancer Patients
650			_aMothers _x-Death _v--Fiction
651		4	_aMinnesota _v-Fiction
655		7	_aPsychological fiction.
655			_aDomestic fiction
942			_cMO
999			_c272242 _d272242