“Reel Life”
Author: Jackie Townsend
Having just finished reading “Reel Life” I can state that it was an interesting read. When I first started this title, I had a difficult time with it because the book’s style is not one that I typically enjoy. However, as I progressed further through “Reel Life,” I was able to get beyond the consistent past to present, past to present layout and successfully immerse myself in the story. There even came a point when I began to look forward to picking it up and reading more; this says a lot about the writing ability of author Jackie Townsend.
“Reel Life” is a fictional drama although, in today’s day and age, it could quite possibly be the detailed life of your next door neighbor and the relationship she has with her own sister / family. “Reel Life” focuses on two sisters, Betty and Jamie, and their dysfunctional life. Somehow, with neither of them being quite sure when, they grew apart and became total strangers. The ties that bind them together are, of course, their biological family and…their total and complete love of movies. Hence the title…
In “Reel Life” we, the reader, follow along as we are presented with an almost cinematic look into the lives of both sisters. We watch them grow as young children; we see them struggle through their teenage years; we marvel at how they sail through college, yet neither of them seems really or truly happy, especially when the other is present. Both of them love each other but neither is willing to let down their defenses in order to let the other one know how much they are needed. To partially quote Sir Walter Scott: “Oh! what a tangled web we weave…”
I don’t want to give any more of the story away but in summary, “Reel Life” was, for the most part, an entertaining book. Townsend is a very descriptive writer and she seems to write with the ease of someone who has actually experienced this tale first hand. The characters found within “Reel Life” are believable, as are the circumstances that they find themselves in. While not the type of story I generally pick up; I am, nonetheless, happy to have read it.