When your power goes out three times in five days, you read lots of books. Thus I was able to read Amanda Skenandore’s recent book in two days. This review of The Second Life of Mirielle West is the result.

Mirielle West is the wife of a 1920s Hollywood movie star. She knows fashion, parties, gossip, and most else about 1920s high society in California. Mirielle is the stereotype society woman, too—shallow, self-absorbed, selfish, but lacking much courage or backbone.

Then, in 1926, her life changes forever when she shows signs of Hansen’s Disease, more popularly known as leprosy. Off she goes to a sanitarium in Louisiana.

The Second Life of Mirielle West Summary

It’s the classic story of someone’s world turned upside down. Mirielle had everything, or nearly everything, in Los Angeles. A handsome husband, a family, plenty of money, and all the fashion she could want. Her life is rather Gatsby-esque in its focus on money, status, reputation, and society.

But the leper home in Carville, Louisiana is the opposite of all that. Society shuns its residents. Most have some kind of physical ailment as a result of their disease. Some have been discarded by their families. Many die within the fenced walls of the compound. Even for the lucky few whom doctors deem safe to return to society, their lives are never the same. Inescapable stigma follows them.

Mirielle must reinvent herself to adapt to her new reality. Given her background, that isn’t easy. She goes through the classic progression of emotions—denial, anger, despair, acceptance. (I may have left out a few, but you get the idea.) The great majority of the story is about her progression and personal growth.

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Review of The Second Life of Mirielle West – Was it a Good Story?

In some ways, absolutely. Skenandore’s writing abilities are quality. She shows attention to detail. The readers feels like it’s the 1920s most of the time. And she succeeds in giving the reader a reason to want Mirielle to succeed despite how self-centered she is when the book begins.

Really, Mirielle has but one admirable quality in the early chapters. She cares about her children and misses them severely. We can sympathize with that. Mirielle admits she wasn’t a great mother at times. In her defense, one of her children drowned in an accident, and she went into hardcore depression as a result. An understandable response, even if not a very helpful one.

So, thumbs up in all these areas. I’ll even give Skenandore bonus points for adding the 1927 Mississippi River flood as a factor at the end of the story. (It was going to be my PhD dissertation topic at one point.)

Does my review of The Second Life of Mirielle West have some negatives? It does. Just one, really, but for me, it’s a big one.

I knew how the story would progress and end after reading 5% of the book, and nothing along the way surprised me or caused me to doubt my initial prediction. The important characters, while well-drawn, were pretty stock. I don’t like to throw in spoilers beyond the basic plot outline, but you’ve probably read this book, too, with different characters and a different setting. I kept hoping for a Nurse Ratched-like character to really add some macabre drama, but, no dice.

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Who Will Like the Book?

It depends. If you don’t mind the exact plot progression you’ve seen in dozens of movies and in several other books, you’ll probably enjoy the story. If you demand something resembling originality when it comes to plot progression, you probably won’t like it nearly as much.

But, if you’re drawn to the era/setting (1920s) or books that feature medical things (leprosy) as central to the story, you can do much worse. Honestly, I’m not trying to make the book sound bad or dull. It wasn’t. Skenandore has reasonable storytelling abilities. I just wish the plot had featured more twists and turns that we couldn’t see coming by chapter 2 or 3.

Thanks for reading, and don’t forget to scroll down and subscribe to my blog before you go.

Other recent book reviews:

The Last Folk Hero, by Jeff Pearlman

Martin Marten, by Brian Doyle

Shakespeare for Squirrels, by Christopher Moore

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