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    The Sweet Relief of Missing Children
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    The Sweet Relief of Missing Children
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    The Sweet Relief of Missing Children
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Sweet Relief of Missing Children

    Written by Sarah Braunstein

    Narrated by Xe Sands

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    In New York City, a girl called Leonora vanishes without a trace. Years earlier and miles upstate, Goldie, a wild, negligent mother, searches for a man to help raise her precocious son, Paul, who later discovers that the only way to save his soul is to run away. As the narrative moves back and forth in time, we find deeper interconnections between these stories and growing clues about Leonora - this missing girl whose face looks out from telephone poles and billboards - whom one character will give anything to save.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDreamscape Media Audio
    Release dateFeb 28, 2011
    ISBN9781611200508
    Unavailable
    The Sweet Relief of Missing Children

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    Reviews for The Sweet Relief of Missing Children

    3/5

    14 ratings14 reviews

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    • 2/5
      This was not an easy book to read. While the author is a talented writer, the plot was too dark, too difficult to follow. Maybe I am just tired of reading books about missing children, it is starting to feel emotionally manipulative. While filled with interesting characters, I was unfulfilled by the novel and disappointed by the ending. I'd heard a lot about this book and was expecting more. I would not recommend this novel.
    • 2/5
      Braunstein's writing is very poetic and pleasurable to read. Other than that, I did not much appreciate the story. Yes, the characters are related, but most only tangentially so and I kept waiting for some sort of "reveal" that never materialized. I also found the characters difficult to differentiate at times. None of the characters really resonated much with me, and I found myself reading the book just to finish, without really being invested in the story.
    • 3/5
      This one is hard to review. I wanted to like it. The cover is intriguing. The book description is intriguing. The writing itself -- the structure & beauty of the words -- is quite good. But the overall structure & attempt to understand this book just put me off. The writing style reminded me a bit of Nicole Krauss -- beautiful, almost poetic writing, with a lot of unwritten & underlying meaning behind the words -- but it lacked so much as well. I had trouble keeping track of the different characters. I had trouble orienting myself in the story's timeline. It took me quite a while to soldier on through this book because the storyline didn't engage me enough to want to sit down and read a big chunk at once. And then once I'd get back to it, I'd be confused all over again because of the aforementioned troubles. I think the LibraryThing reviewers who have posted before me have accurately nailed it with their reviews & have said it better than I can. If Braunstein could narrow down her plot, I think she would be much more well-received with this debut novel.
    • 4/5
      The title of this book captured my interest. How can there be "relief" in missing children? I wanted to find out. As another reviewer states, it is a riddle after all, which in the end makes the most sence to me... I thought this young writer did well enough in her first book, however, in spite of my confusion at the multitude of characters alternating from chapter to chapter and from timeline to timeline. Her writing is exquisite! I was charmed over and over with her words and the silences. I reread many sentences to appreciate them with more care. I became discouraged trying to keep clear in my mind, and i have to admit, sadly, that I might not have finished this book if it hadn't been an "early reviewer." And what a shame. I sence there was so much there, but I only managed to hang on to the very edge of the story, aware of the whole I was missing and regretting it.... The shuffle of the characters only managed to confuse me, and I REALLY tried hard to hold on. I think this author has talent, I think she has a lot to say and she says it beautifully, but I speak for most avid readers I'm sure when I say that I need things laid out in a semblence of order to be able to put the pieces together and appreciate the beauty waiting for me. The cover of the book is haunting.....
    • 3/5
      The title and description drew me towards this debut novel but promise something other than that which is delivered by the author. Expecting a thriller, instead Ms. Braunstein offers a psychological rumination on what it means to be missed or missing in America. There is the wrap-around story of the twelve year old Leonora as we witness her final moments before her disappearance. This is interspersed throughout a multi-generational saga of young Americans searching...for escape, for peace, for heaven only knows.A plethora of characters is introduced in a pattern maintained fairly consistently throughout: a pair of new characters appears, alternates with another pair of characters chapter by chapter. Then another part of the book starts with two more sets of alternating characters. Eventually, the reader puts together that there are multiple generations at play here. However, the time period is never defined in any of the settings until the very end when a post-9/11 reference is made. Ultimately, we are tossed back and forth through three generations of characters with tenuous relationships to each other, only serving to confuse the reader.And to what end? The effect of the novel's structure leads one to realize it as a gimmick, as if the author were unsure of the strength of the narrative itself and found it necessary to apply this artificial layer in an attempt at adding depth where none needed to be added. Ms. Braunstein's writing is reminiscent, at times, of Don DeLillo, in that sometimes what is not said offers more meaning than that which is said; the quiet spaces, the pauses, these are the blocks with which a life is molded.The missing children of the title is a clever entendre that works; besides the missing Leonora, we have children missing their parents who are either physically or emotionally absent from their lives. Adolescents missing themselves, pondering the futility of their futures in small, upstate New York towns. We have a man who doesn't really know anything about his pre-teen daughter.There's a great story in here somewhere, told with some poignant language, especially towards the end of the novel when a character rationalizes his confession. However, the ever-shifting chronological setting served to distract this reader. Perhaps future works from this author will realize the full potential on display in limited doses here.
    • 2/5
      Like a few other reviewers, I'm not quite sure why there should be relief when it comes to missing children. When I requested the book I was hoping that I could understand the title better through the characters. However, I found the book to be confusing and a little disjointed. I feel that the plot started off strong and the background on the characters was enticing, but about 50 pages in it started to unravel. The plot/characters went from being involved to just fleeting glances and substance of what they started off as in the beginning. This may have been the point of the novel, but in the end I wasn't any more intrigued or interested like I was in the beginning.
    • 3/5
      Lots of "missing" goes on in this novel, overwhelmingly so. The story of a missing New York girl is background to other stories about dysfunctional families and what they are missing. Character description is Braunstein's strength, and with it, she hands us Sam, Constance, and Paul, (the characters I found most compelling), and many others. The Sweet Relief of Missing Children also explores themes of abortion, feminism, and men as inferior and untrustworthy. The title is a brilliant riddle. Who is relieved by missing children? Their parents? The children themselves? Who is actually missing? I don't believe this is a book I would recommend as there many parts that weren't very clear, i.e. what acually happened to Libby?
    • 2/5
      Quite a disjointed novel. At times I found it clever and touching, then new characters were forever being introduced and I became completely confused and lost. Pity, I think the author shows a beautiful way with words.
    • 2/5
      Sarah Braunstein accrued a noteworthy honor in the literary world when she was selected by National Book Award finalists as one of the five best fiction writers under the age of 35. The Sweet Relief of Missing Children is her debut novel.I thought this would be compelling book given her credentials; however, it was oddly confusing. There are numerous characters and time lines that I found difficult to keep straight. A flow chart would have been helpful in sorting out the backgrounds of the parents and children and their relationships to one another. Just when I became engaged with a character, the story line and time frame would abruptly change. The sad and violent subject matter in this book should make a reader's heart hurt, but it just didn't happen for me. That said, Sarah Braunstein's descriptive prose is good. I would read her second book given the glimpses of talent evidenced in this one.
    • 4/5
      No real closure or connection between the narratives. Everyone is connected somehow, but not in any profoundly obvious way.
      Basically the feeling I come away with from this book is that we're all human. We're all insulated in our minds and lives and that no body knows what they're doing.
      There's a constant strain of desire and nostalgia throughout.
    • 4/5
      With The Sweet Relief of Missing Children Sarah Braunstein concocts a deeply odd yet profoundly affecting novel that is tenuously centered around Leonora, a privileged young girl who goes missing in Manhattan. I use the term "tenuously centered" because the stories of the book’s other characters swirl and eddy loosely around Leonora’s fate; almost none of them actually know her and some of them don’t even know about her. The characters are all so specific and finely drawn that it was a pleasure getting to know each of them and their individual stories, even though, while reading it, I sometimes had difficulty keeping track of everyone and felt slightly confused over the general direction of the book as a whole. Aside from Leonora, who is a happy and kind little girl, the two other prominent characters are dreamy drifter Paul, who has escaped a life of privation with his neglectful mother and her abusive husband, and Judith, a rebellious teen runaway who matures into just another bored suburban housewife. In addition to these three, there are numerous others whose lives intersect and overlap, influencing one another and making decisions that impact the direction of their lives. Braunstein closely follows each character, illustrating the cause-and-effect relationship between where they start and where they end up. Like Leonora, who makes one awful, momentary error in judgment that changes the course of the rest of her life, all these people make choices, big and small, that lead them down seemingly irreversible paths. So although most of the other characters are not directly impacted by Leonora’s disappearance, her relationship to them becomes a symbolic one. Her short life and the hairpin turn it takes throws into sharp relief the more protracted and "ordinary" fates of the books other characters.I’ll admit, this was a difficult review to write and I don’t think I captured how involving this story (or maybe, more appropriately, these stories) turned out to be. Nor do I think my interpretation does the book justice. This is very rich material - structurally and thematically. This is not a thriller, although there is an element of suspense, nor is it a tear-jerker, although there is tragedy galore. It’s a carefully constructed work of literary fiction that I recommend to anyone seeking a novel populated by complicated, believable characters that will keep you thinking long after you’ve read the last sentence.
    • 4/5
      The Sweet Relief of Missing Children begins with the story of Leonora. She is pretty and tidy and protected. She has her vaccinations, she knows not to talk to strangers, she eats her vegetables and she never takes the shortcut through the alley. She is precious to her parents and she understands these precautions because she understands that she cannot be both precious and free. In the end, none of it matters.Sarah Braunstein’s novel begins and ends with Leonora, but woven throughout the book are the stories of other people, other missing children, who are tangentially connected to Leonora. Their lives are sad and desperate and although it seems like something could be salvaged from them, nothing ever is.This is not a novel for people who like straightforward story-telling. (I seem to say that a lot lately — lots of twisty story lines these days.) Bits and pieces of stories are woven together, forward and backwards in time, and it was sometimes hard to keep everything straight. These are all people whose lives brush up against each other — some of them are related, some of them are simply acquainted — but each brush makes a mark.There was poor Paul, a lonely boy whose mother leaves him home alone on his birthday. Thomas who can’t stop himself from watching Goldie, Paul’s mother, usually through her windows late at night. There’s Sam, a nice young man who wants desperately to be a bad boy, and Judith, who really was a bad girl. Joe and Constance and their interrupted honeymoon, and their new stepson, Sam. Sam helped rescue Judith, but left Helen behind…and then there’s Helen’s strange and striking encounter with Constance.Their lives intersect in unexpected and intriguing ways, but it can be difficult keeping them all straight. Perhaps that’s part of the appeal — I would work my way through a chapter, a wedding, an argument, and then suddenly realize that this must be the same person as in an earlier chapter, only a different part of the timeline. I enjoy that, I enjoy the confusion and sense of discovery you get, but that doesn’t appeal to all readers.I enjoyed the book, but in the end, it didn’t really move me. I haven’t felt the urge to tell people about it, to recommend it to other readers, as I have with other books I’ve finished more recently. Good, but not great, I suppose. It would make a great book club selection — there is so much that would make for good debate, and so many potential discussions about the timeline and the choices the characters make, but it isn’t something I’m likely to re-read on my own.
    • 5/5
      The Short of It:From the very first page, I was captivated.The Rest of It:I want to be especially careful when describing this story to you because although the title does indicate that it’s about a missing child, it’s also about love and loss, what it means to be a parent, self-discovery and fear. Told through alternating viewpoints, the story is given to us in bits and pieces with each section beautifully detailed.In New York City, Leonora makes a dreadful mistake and ends up missing, without a trace. As she tells her story, the reader is made painfully aware that she realized her mistake rather quickly, yet there was no way to change her course once the mistake was made.Goldie is a single mom raising a young boy. She’s desperate to find the perfect man. One who will hopefully help raise her son, Paul. Although her intentions are good, she is overridden by fear. Fear that her looks are going. Fear that she will never find the perfect man. Her desperation completely alienates her son which forces him to run away in order to save himself.Grace’s life is not quite what she expected. Her daughter has run away without any explanation. Searching her room for details, it occurs to her that she doesn’t really know who her daughter is. The realization of this forces her to recall a decision to made sixteen years ago. One in which she decided to keep her baby. Filled with “what ifs”, Grace ponders the life she’s been given.Connie is playing the role of housewife, but there is a little piece of her that wants to tempt fate. As she and her husband raise their nephew, she fantasizes about the boy and gets encouragement from the boy’s dead mother, who appears to her when she needs a bit of guidance. The constant pull to do right, over wrong is what Connie obsesses over.Then, there’s Tom. Tom has fantasies too, one of which involves peeping in on Goldie and her son, Paul.The Sweet Relief of Missing Children is a stunning example of why I love reading. The stories come together effortlessly and the prose is delicate and pure in a way that I find terribly hard to describe, so here are some examples:Connie, in her house coat ponders a nap in the middle of the day.A nap was a crime on a day like this. It was a glorious day, a perfect spring day, but she didn’t want to be outside. Outside was hairy caterpillars and hippies, mud on your shoes, boys and girls shooting each other significant glances they were so stupid as to think no one saw. She saw. A nun could see. Heat. Halter tops. The way a jaw worked chewing gum. Outside was, to put it mildly, a mess; total rudeness. (154, 155)It’s Paul’s birthday and his mother has not given him a proper gift.What he wanted was the opposite of candor. He wanted the lie of silence and cake. He wanted a serene smile, and for her to take him into her arms, and to feel that she had no other need, and for her mouth to stop, just for tonight, his birthday. (29) I can’t say enough about this book. This is Braunstein’s first novel and all you probably need to know, is that once I finished it, I was tempted to turn to page one and start all over again. It has a slightly voyeuristic feel to it and once you start it, it’s nearly impossible to put down. I recommend it highly and I’m adding it to my list of faves for 2011.
    • 4/5
      The Sweet Relief of Missing Children is not just one story – it is the story of many characters which dance in and out of the narrative, sometimes connecting with each other, sometimes not. There is Leonora, an innocent twelve year old living in New York City who forgets her parents’ warnings about strangers…and is abducted. There is Paul, living with his narcissistic mother, struggling to be accepted for who he is, wanting to be recognized. Goldie, Paul’s mother, is also searching for acceptance and for love – she thinks she will find it in the arms of a man. There is Connie, a woman who sees the ghost of her deceased sister-in-law and who struggles to raise her nephew Sam. Judith runs away and is abused by her boyfriend; Grace flees her boring life to find adventure; Thomas helps women abort their children by day, and peeks into their windows by night. The cast of characters in Sarah Braunstein’s debut novel is huge and quirky. They are average and remarkable, both at the same time.The character who binds the other characters together is Leonora. It is her story which takes the longest to tell even though it occurs over the course of just a few days, and we don’t know what will become of her until the very end of the book. What connects Leonora to the rest is not a physical connection, but more of a thematic connection. The novel is less about any one character and more about the commonality of their struggles. Braunstein focuses on the search for identity, the desire to flee or “disappear” when things are not going well, the lure of sex and love and immorality when our self esteem stumbles.Could she go back to the city? She’d thought so. Her instincts told her to return. But she had to remember not to trust her instincts. That was the lesson, right? Do not say yes. Do not follow. When that thing leaps up inside of you and says Go Go Go for the love of all that is holy! – you stay. – from The Sweet Relief of Missing Children -Another common thread which connects the characters is that of parenting. What makes a good parent? Is it enough to just love your kids, or is there something more they need? Can a child rise above the sins of the parent? How much of who we become is based in how we were raised? Braunstein is not kind to the parents in her novel – they are flawed and sometimes selfish – but, they are also very real. They love their children, but they struggle with that love.As I was reading this book, I began to think of it as a collection of linked short stories. Many of the characters’ paths cross in the course of their lives, some are connected simply by who they know. The novel spans years, moves back and forth from past to present, and alternates from one character’s view to another’s. Braunstein writes beautifully. She captures the emotions and thoughts of her characters and puts them into terrible situations which are difficult to resolve. They make bad choices and must pay the consequences. Braunstein’s writing is raw, emotional, and sometimes very uncomfortable. I appreciated the honesty and grittiness of the prose.This is a non-linear novel and at times it felt disconnected. I found myself working hard to understand the characters and their dilemmas, to put the parts together to form a cohesive whole. Sometimes I wasn’t sure what was really happening or when it was happening. That disconnect and discomfort was a little bit like listening to a song whose melody is dissonant, or whose singer is just a little bit off key. It was not always pleasant.The Sweet Relief of Missing Children is a gritty, raw novel that explores the darker side of human nature. The writing is gorgeously constructed, but the novel itself is disjointed. Readers who enjoy literary fiction and novels which incorporate the idea of linked short stories, might want to give this one a try. Sarah Braunstein is gifted, of that there is no doubt, and for that reason, I will be watching for more work from this young author.