Domestic Arts (Sisters of Stella Mare)($16.99Value)

Description

Evie has spent ten years believing in a relationship that may never have valued her as much as she valued it. Now, after a painful betrayal, she returns to Stella Mare and the house where she grew up. With her father moving into assisted living, Evie faces the practical task of clearing out her childhood home—and the unexpected discovery of an ancient hooked rug and her great-aunt Hannah's diary. What begins as an attempt to understand an intriguing family artifact soon becomes something much larger. The rug opens a door into the lives of the women who came before Evie: women whose work was done largely in kitchens, bedrooms, sewing rooms, and other domestic spaces, yet whose creativity and intelligence found expression through the things they made. As Evie follows the stories hidden in the rug and the diary, she begins to see traditional women's work not as insignificant household labor, but as a form of artistic expression and a record of women's lives, beliefs, struggles, and aspirations. Meanwhile, Stella Mare offers unexpected possibilities of its own. Her sisters and extended family surround her with the complications and comforts of home. Her artistic career is at a crossroads. And Stephen, an appealing newcomer working at the local gallery, awakens feelings Evie thought she had put aside. But finding new love is not enough. Before Evie can build a new life, she must discover who she is when she stops measuring her worth through someone else's eyes. Domestic Arts is a small-town story about sisters, family, career change, new love, and a woman finding herself—while exploring the often-overlooked artistic legacy of women's domestic work. For readers drawn to women's fiction, literary fiction, women's history, art, crafts, family stories, and female self-discovery , Annie M. Ballard's Domestic Arts offers a richly textured story about the work women create, the lives they leave behind, and the value they discover in themselves. A layered and nuanced literary tale... An expected betrayal forces a struggling artist to confront the opportunistic relationship that defines her romantic past in Ballard's poignant latest installment in the Sisters of Stella Mare. Evie is back in Stella Mare with nothing but agonizing pain. Trying to get over Jase's betrayal, she throws herself into her new project; clearing out her childhood home after her father's decision to live in an assisted facility. When she finds an ancient rug and her great-aunt's diary in the attic, she becomes enraptured with her discovery. On sabbatical from his university in the southern US, the endearing Stephen is a local novelty, helping his friend Leonard in the art gallery. When he meets Evie, the spark flies immediately. But Evie is wary of the new relationship. It's easy to become fully immersed in the story: Ballard's attention to detail yields an extraordinarily rich picture of Stella Mare's small-town culture. Her characterization is deft as she portrays Evie and Leonie's struggles to come out of their dilemmas. Shaped by the extraordinary betrayal, Evie makes for a credibly realized heroine. She's vulnerable yet resilient, and the secondary cast is equally compelling, be it humans or four-legged furry friends. Alternating between the third-person omniscient voices shifting between Evie's and Stephen's stories and Hannah's journal entries, the narration is remarkably smooth, immersing readers in the characters' inner world. Ballard weaves Evie's great-grandmother and great-aunt's backstories together with Evie's ongoing turmoil, as she struggles to determine whether her decade-long relationship with Jase was, in fact, an opportunistic association on the latter's part. Evie's blind hope despite Jase's obvious disregard of her feelings becomes frustrating at times. Readers will hold their breaths for Evie to realize her potential and cheer for her when finally, she takes a stand for herself. Ballard ably handles the tightly constructed plot, infusing new life into the well-used plot device of intricacies of familial and romantic relationships. As the story progresses, readers realize that the story is much more than one woman's journey to comprehending her own self-worth; it is a well-crafted mixture of exploration of life with in-depth examination of how domestic art has served as a vital platform for women to express their views about their identity and rights through the ages. Throughout, Ballard weaves in themes of pain, self-discovery, identity, female empowerment, and the ways a partner's betrayal goes beyond feeling hurt and angry, impacting a person's self-worth. Poignant and thoroughly absorbing. The Praries Book Review, January 12, 2023