Book Review – A Piece Of The World

by Christina Baker Kline (Borough Press) ISBN: 9780008220075

A Piece Of The World is based on the life of Christina Olson, a character in Andrew Wyeth’s collection of paintings, Christina’s World. This story is set on the coast of Maine during the late 1800’s to mid-1900s.

Young Christina takes ill with a fever and she is left crippled from an early age. Christina knows no defeat. With determination and grit she insists on getting about on her own. Her family is not rich and she leaves school to help with household and farming chores suited to women of that era.

Christina is no different from other girls her age. Her heart beats and bleeds the same. She too dreams of love and having a family and a home of her own one day.

Betsy shows up uninvited at Christina’s door one day. She brings with her a breath of fresh air. When Betsy marries Andy, his fascination with Christina and the world she lives in grows every season. Andy sees Christina for who she is. He sees the person inside the obstinate body. This is what he captures in his paintings of Christina’s World.

I found A Piece Of The World remarkably descriptive and heartrending.

Maria Vosloo
5/5

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