Both Sides Now

by Ruth Pennebaker

Henry Holt and Company, 202 pp., $16.95

In Both Sides Now, her third novel for young adults, Austin author and Dallas Morning News columnist Ruth Pennebaker writes with the same sensitivity that marked her previous novels. With a realism informed by personal experience, Both Sides Now explores the subject of terminal illness and its effects on a family.

Set in Austin, Both Sides Now introduces us to Rebecca, a woman recovering from breast cancer, and her optimistic, driven daughter, Liza. Sixteen-year-old Liza is focused and direct, with clearly formed goals and an unshakable belief in the power of positive thinking. Rebecca, a failed novelist, is only four months out of an aggressive course of treatment. When Rebecca’s cancer comes back, Liza and the rest of her family are thrown into a situation that optimism can’t overcome, and Rebecca must convince them to face with her the possibility of her death.

Pennebaker brings an informed sensitivity to her writing, drawing upon her experiences with breast cancer to create Rebecca. Rebecca’s insights appear in brief interludes throughout the book, below a small picture of her face in shadow — an effective metaphor for how her family inadvertently places her in darkness by choosing to ignore the reality of her cancer.

The focus of the book is Liza. The reader sees through Liza’s eyes, with all their blind spots and moments of surprising clarity. The technique is engaging, although sometimes it rings a little flat. Liza is, for the most part believably, an adolescent in a frightening situation, striving to cope in the only way she knows. As Liza’s belief in herself and her family is at first shaken, then altered, the reader is able to travel with her. Pennebaker is an able guide through this journey.

As in her two previous books, Don’t Think Twice, about teen pregnancy, and Conditions of Love, which explored a daughter’s efforts to understand her father’s alcoholism, Pennebaker shows clarity, sense of detail, and unexpected moments of humor. Both Sides Now is a powerfully written, emotionally engaging novel for young adults, especially those attempting to understand a parent’s illness.

Ruth Pennebaker will be at Barnes & Noble Arboretum on Tuesday, June 27, at 7:30pm.

This article appears in June 23 • 2000.

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