Module 7: Solace of the Road

Book Cover:

Book Summary: Living as a young, troubled teenager in a foster home because she was abandoned as a child, Holly Hogan tries to run back to her mother in Ireland whom she has idealized. She thinks she can find a better life dressed as her alter ego, Solace, who she’s made a story for full of excitement she only hopes to experience.  By putting on a borrowed blonde wig she turns herself into this older more courageous self.  Holly begins to discover herself on the journey and realize.

APA Reference: 

Dowd, S. (2009). Solace of the road. London: David Fickling Books.

Impressions:

I can appreciate the story and do believe it is well written but unfortunately never felt a connection to Holly Hogan.  I felt like I was observing her and her issues, without losing myself in her story. If a female young adult feels like an outsider or has ever felt that way, the reader would easily be able to relate.  Many teenagers and any others who feel cynicism towards ‘the norm’ would enjoy the protagonist’s perspective.  The adventure of hitchhiking from London to Ireland can definitely draw readers in as well.  Many teenagers at some point want to run away from their problems and Holly’s story can give them an idea of how that might go including the pitfalls which some might overlook.

Professional Review:

Gillian Engberg comments, “From the moment she enters her new London foster home with childless Ray and Fiona, 14-year-old Holly feels “like an oddball . . . a crackhead in a yoga class.” She dreams of running away to Ireland to search for her birth mother, but it’s not until she finds Fiona’s blonde wig, discarded after a bout with cancer, that Holly finds the courage to hit the road. Wig on, she becomes Solace, “the unstoppable, the smooth-walking, sharp-talking glamour girl,” and in this wrenching novel, readers follow Holly from London to the Irish Sea. A cast of memorable characters, from a vegan truck driver to a sexy teen with a motorcycle, helps move Holly along, but it’s the solo legs of the journey that are most memorable, particularly as they build to a boiling point, in which Holly confronts the buried truth about her past. Narrated in almost real-time detail, the story requires patient readers, but most will find themselves immediately caught up in Holly’s unwavering, bitterly funny, and sometimes caustic voice, which captures both outer and inner worlds—the British countryside and her pain, fatigue, and yearning—with a poetic, almost hallucinatory quality. With rare, raw honesty, Dowd writes about the legacy of abandonment, memory’s comforting tricks, and the painful, believable ways that love heals.”

Engberg, G. (2009, October 01). Solace of the road by Siobhan Dowd. Retrieved from                    http://www.booklistonline.com/Solace-of-the-Road-Siobhan-Dowd/pid=3535331

Library Use: This book would do well featured in a book talk for young adults about self-discovery.  With other realistic fiction, Solace of the Road, could show young teenage girls, especially, that there can be hope and the strength that can be found within.