4 STAR REVIEW: RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM by Joy Lanzendorfer

Publication Date: May 4, 2021

If misfortune hadn’t gotten in the way, Sandra Sanborn would be where she belongs–among the rich and privileged instead of standing outside a Hollywood studio wearing a sandwich board in the hope of someone discovering her. It’s tough breaking into the movies during the Great Depression, but Sandra knows that she’s destined for greatness. After all, her grandmother Vira crossed the country during the Gold Rush and established the Sanborns as one of San Francisco’s most prominent families, and her mother Mabel grew up in a lavish mansion and married into an agricultural empire. Success, Sandra feels, is in her blood. She just needs a chance to prove it.

Right Back Where We Started From by Joy Lanzendorfer was a difficult read for many reasons. It was lengthy at four hundred pages and then ended abruptly. The back and forth between the lives and often the individual events of the three generations of women—Vira, her daughter Mabel and her granddaughter Emma who now calls herself Sandra, didn’t give the story a good flow. It centers on three strong women who are hard to love or like because they don’t get the life they want or think they deserve. It’s historical fiction that begins in the mid-1800s in Maine as we travel by covered wagon to California, where most of the story takes place, but that’s not where the book begins. The story ends in 1944 and not how I was expecting it to, but all three women seem to get what they deserve! The mother and daughter relationships were difficult at best.

Vira, Mabel, and Sandra have a darkness to them, and it spreads to others they meet. They all know what they want out of life, and it’s not what they ultimately get. Vira seemed the most genuine, although she wanted her husband to be the best he could be even if he found that life boring and wanted more adventure. She gave in to him since that’s what a good wife does, but she never let him forget it the rest of his life as she molded him to what their life should be. Mabel and Sandra have secrets that add layers to the story as we try to find out the truths. They are both deceitful and seem made from the same cloth. Sandra’s lists of what she thinks the next steps she needs to take in her life, at every wrong turn, offered a little levity to the story. Sandra relies too much on what others think of her, her situation, or life in general which always leaves her wanting more.

Ms. Lanzendorfer excelled in describing the lands, the journey, the war effort, the struggles, the businesses, and society and she made me feel like I was there. There was romance and love woven throughout, but it wasn’t the central theme in telling the tale. There were hopes and dreams that were dashed and not just for the three women. The men they come in contact with and make their lives with also don’t have the lives or women they hope for. We feel the struggles given the eras that the book is set in, and there were often heartbreaking moments.

This is Ms. Lanzendorfer’s debut novel. I would probably give another of her books a try if it had a more upbeat feel.

Joy Lanzendorfer’s work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, NPR, Smithsonian, Poetry Foundation, and many others. She was included in The Best Small Fictions anthology and was a notable in The Best American Essays 2019. She has been awarded grants and residencies from the Discovered Awards for Emerging Literary Artists, Wildacres Residency Program, and the Speculative Literature Foundation.

Wednesday, May 5
Excerpt at Passages to the Past

Thursday, May 6
Review at Crystal’s Library

Saturday, May 8
Review at Reading is My Remedy

Sunday, May 9
Review at Carole’s Ramblings

Monday, May 10
Review at Rajiv’s Reviews

Tuesday, May 11
Excerpt at Books, Ramblings, and Tea

Wednesday, May 12
Excerpt at Bookworlder

Sunday, May 16
Interview at Reader_ceygo

Monday, May 17
Review at Reader_ceygo
Review at Jorie Loves A Story