Our short paper assignment on paratext inspired me to look up reviews of Missing Sarah on Goodreads. I wrote my short paper on a different book, but I was interested to read what people were saying about Missing Sarah as well; I wondered if any of them brought up similar ideas to the points that came up in our class discussions.
One review on the first page jumped out at me right away. Lesley says: “To be honest, the book jumps around a lot and if I wasn’t reading it for book club I’m not sure I would have finished it. Not because the book wasn’t well written, but because the subject material (while never graphic) is a difficult one with no easy solution.”
During our studies of life narrative, we have discussed how memoir is presented and marketed, as well as what readers expect memoir to be. I am interested in this review particularly because it seems to imply that the reviewer felt the absence of a comfortable answer or ending impacted their experience of the book in a negative way.
When we talk about the work that memoir is doing in society, we discuss life narrative as a tool for exploring history, offering different perspectives, and bringing to light certain ideas. Part of Missing Sarah’s work as a text is to educate about a very important issue affecting real people and real communities in Vancouver. I think that the book does this very well; it forces readers to confront something that is often swept under the rug or not dealt with at all. I wonder to what extent the book defies some of the expectations of readers by being so upfront with the subject matter it is dealing with. I think that it is very telling that Leslie gave the book four out of five stars and a generally good review while also stating that, if she had the chance, she wouldn’t have finished it. Missing Sarah is a good book to read, but it is not a comfortable book to read. It does not deal with its subject matter in an indirect or indistinct way. I can’t help but think back to our discussion of “filter bubbles” in search engines and news feeds. If we aren’t confronted with issues that are uncomfortable, our ability to enact change will be impacted. Missing Sarah, while presenting a moving and eye-opening life narrative, also breaks through real-life “filter bubbles”.