Sylvia Sandon has a handsome husband and two daughters that
keep her hopping. She's also an artist that used to love
painting landscapes. From the outside looking in, Sylvia has
everything that a woman her age could possibly want.
However, Sylvia is very dissatisfied with the way her life
is going. Although she loves her husband and children,
something is missing for her. It's not something she can
quite put her finger on. Maybe it's the growing distance
between her and her husband and the fact that they
haven't made love in months. Why hasn't she been able to
paint a landscape in over a year? There's just something
wrong and Sylvia cannot quite grasp what it is.
Then she meets Tai and certain things start to fall in place.
Sylvia is painfully attracted to Tai, and he to her, but she
is a married woman and she grew up watching her mother
behave in ways that ultimately destroyed their family. She
has no desire to repeat her mother's mistakes but she's just
not sure she can stop herself.
As Sylvia dances dangerously close to the edge of that steep
cliff, she remembers portions of her childhood. Therefore,
this is a story of both the present and the past. It's also
a tale of how the past very much influences the present and,
possibly, the future. Sylvia has to make her own choices in
her life but she's so very afraid that they will be the
wrong ones. Carefully, she explores new ground and tries not
to think about consequences. There ARE consequences, though.
There are always consequences when someone takes a risk and
tries to keep secrets. Sylvia knew she should have been
ready to deal with the fallout from her own choices, but
what she finds is that she was never ready. Not now, nor in
the past when she was keeping secrets for her mother.
Dori Ostermiller has written a beautiful book in telling
Sylvia's story and that of her family. It's a book that has
a bit of everything. It opens the doors to rooms that most
people don't want others to see, and she does it with
complete honesty. If there was ever a book to get lost in,
OUTSIDE THE ORDINARY WORLD is that book.
Sylvia Sandon always swore she wouldn’t become her mother.
But one August morning she finds herself walking the same
path as the fervently religious yet faithless Elaine…into an
affair she feels powerless to resist.
Against the backdrop of California brush fires in the
’70s, twelve year-old Sylvia had agreed to hold a secret
that would devour her family’s dream of happiness. Now
struggling to create a better life in small-town New
England, Sylvia nonetheless feels caught in the coils of
history: she confronts the embers of her dying marriage, the
all-consuming needs of her two daughters and her faltering
artistic career. Then Tai Rosen—the father of a student—
ignites an unexpected passion and a familiar betrayal that
could illuminate the past, even as it jeopardizes everything
dear.
Outside the Ordinary World reveals what
lies beneath the surface of infidelity. But at its
heart, it is the story of the powerful, sometimes disturbing
bond between mothers and daughters, and the shimmering line
between self-revelation and self-destruction.
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