Author: Sonya Cobb
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publish Date: August 12, 2014
Source: I received a copy from the publisher; however, this did not affect my review.
What's the Story?:
From Goodreads.com: "Sophie Porter is the last person in the world you’d expect to be stealing Renaissance masterpieces—and that’s exactly why she’s so good at it. Slipping objects out of her husband’s office at the Philadelphia Museum of Art satisfies something deep inside, during a time in her life when satisfactions are few and far between.
Selling the treasures also happens to keep their house out of foreclosure – a house that means everything to Sophie. But the FBI is sniffing around, and Sophie is close to destroying the very life she’s working so hard to build. She knows she should give up her thieving ways. But she may no longer be in control. The Objects of Her Affection is a riveting story about the realities of motherhood, the perils of secrecy, and the art of appraising the real treasures in our lives."
My Two Cents:
In "The Objects of Her Affection," Sophie just wants a comfortable life for her children. We see that she did not have the best upbringing but that she wants to do more for her own children and that includes providing them with things that are well out of her and her husband's means so she is driven to stealing priceless art pieces from the museum that her husband works at. This book shows how far some may be pushed in order to live the lives that they feel that they deserve, regardless of whether or not they actually deserve it.
The main character, Sophie, is not one that I identify with but that I find endlessly fascinating as almost a psychological study. In this book, we see how wanting something that is out of reach has the power to push someone into doing something out of character. Sophie is definitely driven by the want for a comfortable life.
The book opens with describing how much Sophie wants to do for her children. Her husband works and fulfills his life with his job. Sophie does some freelance work on the side but most of her job is rearing the couple's children. She doesn't mind it and really loves her children. She also wants them to have everything that will comfort them. Sophie doesn't think she has it in her to steal things but she is so driven to maintaining the perfect lifestyle that she starts doing it without really thinking of the consequences. It was really hard for me to get into that mindset. I understand wanting to provide for your family but not doing something illegal to do it. I'm much too much of a rule player to understand that.
The book is very sympathetic to Sophie, I thought. In some cases, it made it difficult to find my footing with it. I wanted to know more about why she wanted to have this life for her children. Why did she care so little about the consequences? Having grown up in a household where we didn't have money to do ALL THE THINGS but still feeling like I had a really, really amazing childhood, I had a hard time understanding Sophie but like I said previously, she does make for a really interesting character study!
Trying to do it all and have it all is prevalent everywhere and more common than you think. Can understand Sophie's predicament
ReplyDeleteI had this on my list, but not very high up, due to the fact that a friend did not give it high marks. I'll probably never get to it, but I'll keep it on my list. Thanks for the review.
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