Songs without Words by Ann Packer

The author of "Dive from Clausen's Pier" came back with a tender, evocative, searing friendship between two women. Liz and Sarabeth were neighbors growing up in Northern California. Their friendship deepened even more with the suicide of Sarabeth's mother when they were in High School. The bond formed in childhood was greatly tested when Liz's 15 year old daughter became severely depressed and affected all their lives. Packer is brilliant in depicting the interior lives of women, the daily rhythm, the emotional waves. She writes with such honesty and realistic portrayals of characters in situations unimaginable that the reader almost feel like a voyeur. How much could we expect from a lifetime of friendship?

"Songs without Words" opened with " Each evening, the streetlights came on at dusk, and the view out the window changed, from barely glowing kitchens and TV rooms to the houses that contained them, and to the trees that sheltered the houses. It seemed to Sarabeth that for a little while there was a kind of balance out there, an equilibrium. But then quickly, darkness came down from the sky and soon the lit rooms returned to prominence and finally everything else was black...."