conversations.from: human
conversations.value: What is a description for a book titled The Matter of Sylvie about Burrows, Wednesdays, Jacqueline with the genre: Literature & Fiction, Contemporary? Start with the sentence 'This impressionistic yet wholly affecting novel visits three members of the Burrows family on three Wednesdays in three different decades'.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: This impressionistic yet wholly affecting novel visits three members of the Burrows family on three Wednesdays in three different decades. The family matriarch, Jacqueline, is 27 in 1961, pregnant with her fourth child, and completely exhausted, especially because Sylvie, deprived of oxygen at birth, is a veritable whirlwind, constantly in motion and capable of leaving wide swathes of destruction in her wake. But it is the emotional wear and tear of trying to keep her child safe that pushes the young mother to the brink. Her husband, Frank, who is 40 in 1973, is hardly ever at home due to his all-consuming job as a policeman and his need for liquor and strange women in order to forget the burdens of his job and family. And finally, their oldest daughter, Lesa, who is 31 in 1987, seems ready to acknowledge the grief her mother has had to shoulder alone and to let go of her own bitterness. This wrenching novel is most notable for its effective framework and its all-encompassing compassion for those who must raise and live with a special-needs child. --Joanne Wilkinson