Any Bitter Thing

By Monica Wood

Richard Russo has celebrated Monica Wood's fiction as "thoroughly captivating warm and wise and beautifully written," and Andre Dubus III praised it as "luminous and graceful—entertaining yet transcendent." Any Bitter Thing, Wood's brilliant new novel, is her breakout book, a timely, gripping, and compassionate tale of family, faith, and deeply hidden truths. One of its greatest strengths is its continuous ability to defy expectations. It's not what you think. It is worse. Lizzy Mitchell was raised from the age of two by her uncle, a Catholic priest. When she was nine, he was falsely accused of improprieties with her and dismissed from his church, and she was sent away to boarding school. Now thirty years old and in a failing marriage, she is nearly killed in a traffic accident. What she discovers when she sets out to find the truths surrounding the accidentand about the accusations that led to her uncle's deathdoes more than change her life. With deft insight into the snares of the human heart, Monica Wood has written an intimate and emotionally expansive novel full of understanding and hope.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chronicle Books Digital
• Release date: Jul 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9780811870689

Monica Wood

Monica Wood is a novelist, memoirist, and playwright; a recipient of the Maine Humanities Council Carlson Prize for contributions to the public humanities; and a recipient of the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance Distinguished Achievement Award for contributions to the literary arts. She lives in Portland, Maine, with her husband, Dan Abbott, and their cat, Susie.

Reviews for Any Bitter Thing

[kali.lightfoot · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have long delayed reading this book because of what I thought to be the subject matter - child sexual abuse. And yes, that is the underlying subject matter but not in the way I thought. The book is beautifully written. Monica Wood has a poet's ear for metaphor and phrasing. She also writes believable, fully realized characters; but as a cover-blurb says, she is a master of "...the forgotten, undersold virtue of good sound plotting..." I was very impressed by the way she introduced different elements of the story, almost as though she was choreographing a dance, or composing a piece of music.

The story is haunting, and there are no heroes in it -- just flawed humans trying to cope with the events of their lives. It's a perfect demonstration of how a major event in one life can affect the lives of whole families and communities.

In an interview in the back of the edition I read, Monica's sister asks if Monica thinks the book is about abandonment. Monica counters that yes, that is one element but there are many more. To me some of the elements were abandonment, loss, hope, love, religion as balm and brutality, and honesty/dishonesty.

It is at its base a great story that moves along at a good speed through many surprising twists and turns. A very good read, and very thought-provoking.

[Esther Bravo Mozo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Such a fine book! Beautifully written.

[nyiper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really loved this. Wood writes about people I want to know more about---they are appealing characters and the intertwining of the events that occur to and with them are just so well done!

[mlake_22 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was very surprising. I thought that I knew what was going to happen, how the book would end, but I was surpirsed. Simple descriptions caught me, surprised me with the strangeness and perfection of the images conjured. Read this book!

[lenoreaz_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The victim of a hit-and-run accident, Lizzy Mitchell is left by the driver in the middle of the median, hurt and adrift. Later Lizzie comes to see the accident as indicative of her life up to that point. 

[ss1214_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

For myself I found this a very boring and depressing book. I only made it halfway through. Just reading it seemed like a chore. Too bad I usually get excited about Maine authors.

[sugarcreekranch · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I almost gave up halfway through. The story was really dragging. I read the reviews, and they referred to "plot twists", so I kept at it. I'm glad I did -- the last third was substantially more interesting. But overall, not one I'll be recommending to friends.

[lukes_171461 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Monica Wood never disappoints. He easy prose serves her difficult issues extremely well, and while we may be lulled into a sense of security that we really know what's going on, Ms. Wood slyly pitches us a surprise curve at which we swing and miss every time.Lizzy is orphaned very early in life and her uncle, a Catholic priest, takes over custody and raises the little girl while also tending to his parishoners. The resentful busybody of a housekeeper thinks she sees something untoward, and Father Mike must go away and never see Lizzy again. One thing I really love about this book is that a child services counselor, in her determination to find something wrong, is one of the villainesses. I think I prefer "My Only Story" among Ms. Wood's work; but as I say, Ms. Wood never disappoints. She deals with issues arising from family crises supremely well. Her characters, major and minor, are full, understandable, and well-shaded. She reliably rewards her readers, and I look forward to getting through all her work.

[tututhefirst_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

One of my top reads this year. A poignant story, with well developed characters, and a plot line that has you sitting on the edge of the chair, convinced that something is not being said. The ending doesn't disappoint. Essentially this is the story of a woman, orphaned at age 2, raised by her uncle, who happened to be a priest, and their subsequent loss of each other. Her adult quest to fit together missing pieces of her life is extraordinarily written..it could so easily have become a daytime soap, but isn't. Rather it is a quiet, believable, compelling story that makes it my first 'couldn't put it down' of the year.

[permaswooned · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is beautifully written. After her accident, the main character has to try to piece together the puzzle of her life, including things that she never examined very closely. The book has real tragedy in it, and many adults that had no idea what to do with a child in her situation. Reading the story as it unfolds is like opening a very special gift. I highly recommend it.

[risadabomb_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is beautifully written and the author draws you deeply into a world of faith and forgiveness. It is a truly moving story.

[abirdman_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I didn't want to like this book, but I do. It's a great story-- the beginning is tender and heartbreaking, and it turns by the end into a rousing good story. Well-crafted and very moving.

[cataylor_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The book begins with a young woman named Lizzy being hit by a teenage driver while jogging. Her sense of awareness during the time she is left on the road, found by a driver, and the time she is in the hospital leaves her convinced of one thing in particular -- she saw her deceased uncle, Father Mike (a Catholic priest), who raised her after her parents death when she was a small child. In her search to find someone who'll believe in her, she has to confront her troubled marriage, her relationship with her best friend, and she must revisit her childhood in a way she never could before. The book is full of twists and turns that leave the reader reeling and thinking. I loved it.

[kathywoodall · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

When Lizzy Mitchell barely survives a near fatal car wreck she swears her deceased uncle, Father Mike, came to visit her. This book basically retells the story of how Lizzy came to live with her Uncle after her parents died. When Father Mike is accussed of sexually abusing Lizzy as a child, she is taken away and Father Mike dies. Excellent story with a rather suprising twist to the ending.

[suedonym · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'd like to see this one have more buzz. Wood takes a situation in which the premise is basically set, but then weaves a tale of character development and new reactions/developments that was engrossing. I kept reading furiously.