Review: December, by Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop

December was a painful and honestly written story that spoke to me as a parent, but also as someone who can still remember and understand the urging to just shut down as a child. The novel centers around eleven year-old Isabelle, who loss of control of a purposeful day of quiet has resulted in a nine month silence, and her parents, Ruth and Wilson, who are at the end of their wits.

Isabelle decided to stop speaking one day after witnessing yet another fight between her parents. Unfortunately, the silence took on a life of its own, and as the book begins, Isabelle feels powerless to make herself utter a sound, even to the point of not playing the piano if anyone is around. Her complete withdrawal makes it impossible for her to work through daily life with anyone, and thus her own youthful interpretations of the world around her play into her child's belief that she either does or should have much more control over the world than is realistic.

Her parents, for their part, are at a loss as to what started Isabelle's silence, and what to do about it. Their efforts to remain a family, and their heartbreaking, constant fight to find a way to allow Isabelle to open back up, are all too real. As a parent, I could only imagine myself in their shoes, feeling the growing helplessness and despair as the months wore on. Their attempts to help their daughter are so real, in part because in their struggle the parents make missteps that are absolutely something that I could imagine myself doing, like bringing Isabelle's sketchbook to her therapist, who then decides to use it as a tool in a therapy session rather than just reviewing it in private as had been previously agreed by the parents. Isabelle, furious, withdraws further due to what she sees as a betrayal. Ruth, dismayed, beats herself up for her failed attempts at getting help. This is a terrible cycle that continues throughout the book until the surprising final breakthrough.

December is very well-written. Each character is allowed to speak, and just as I would begin to identify too strongly with the parents' struggles and pain, and become angry with Isabelle on their behalf, the perspective would change and I would see through Isabelle's eyes, and her own painful emotional issues would flood thorough me. I could easily imagine this being a child I could know, or even one of my own children, and that will probably haunt me for quite awhile. The very idea that one of my children could shut down so totally without my having any idea what was coming, or how to fix it, terrifies me. It speaks of the effects of children on a marriage, and of marriage on children, as well as the stunning importance of the verbal connection between children and their parents. There are no 'bad guys' in this novel - just a family orbiting around silence.

Rating: four out of five stars - well-written, emotionally involving family drama.