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Tillie Harris's life is in disarray—her husband is away on business, the boxes in her new home aren't unpacked, and the telephone isn't even connected yet. Though she's not due for another month, sudden labor pains force Tillie to reach out to her estranged father for help, a choice that means facing the painful memories she's been running from since she was a little girl.
An extraordinary debut from a talented new voice, Up from the Blue untangles the year in Tillie's life that changed everything: 1975, the year her mother disappeared.
Anonymous
Posted September 24, 2010
What a boring, predictable novel. While attempting to be 'deep' and 'touching' it ends up as something poorly crafted and amateur. Tille is the most obnoxious and weirdest character I've read in a while and the mother is a one-dimensional sketch of a person suffering from 'mental illness'. As a caretaker of someone mentally ill, I was even offended by the author's amateur attempt at such a heart-wrenching, provoking subject. Couldn't even bother with a long review. Don't believe the 'good' reviews. This book is the worst I've read all year.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Although deeply sad, and, unfortunately, ow we handled mental disorders in the past, the love you feel for Tillie! Great job, Susan. Looking forward to reading more from this author!
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.KPMAE
Posted June 2, 2011
I just finsihed this book a few days ago, and I did not want to put it down, I loved it. I will read it again. I will also pass this along to my friends to enjoy.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Book-Wise
Posted April 26, 2011
I really got into this book. Very good read. The characters are so believable it reads more like a non-fiction memoir. Could not put this down. Really hits the mark on mental illness and how it affects the whole family. Can't wait for this authors next book.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.CyndiANC
Posted April 19, 2011
Accidentally came across this while browsing Nookbooks online. I am so glad I bought it because it was such a great story. I actually shed tears twice while reading this but it isn't a 'downer', really. The story just hit home for me a couple times.
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Posted March 5, 2011
really enjoyed this book wasent what i expected couldnt put down.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.messerj1
Posted January 25, 2011
Contrary to some reviews I believe this book hits the mark for many households that had and still have MH illness in their family and how they handle it. There was a time when MH illnesses were undiagnosed and misunderstood. Depression=laziness was one interpretation. I think Tillie and her brother were written from the standpoint that many children lived in with a family where the family was working and the mother faced challenges at home that she could not handle especially with a MH illness. Loved this book and the message at the end that Tillie discoverd about her mother.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Tillie is seven months pregnant, newly moved into an apartment she is supposed to be getting ready while her husband goes on one last business trip, and frantic. She feels contractions, and doesn't even have a phone connection to call a hospital or doctor to see what is wrong. Desparate, she reaches out to her father from whom she has been estranged for years. He comes to her rescue and gets her to the hospital where it is confirmed that her baby is to born today, early or not.
As she waits for the birth, Tillie is torn between the uncertain future and her memories of growing up, especially the year she was eight. That was the year her family moved from a military base to Washington DC, so that her father, the colonel, could work at the Pentagon on a new missile system. That was also the year her beloved mother disappeared from her life, first mentally, then physically. Her mother is caught up in a deep, bone-numbing depression, and can not function in a normal family setting. Tillie relives those years and how her mother's absence affected all her relationships. It affected not only her maternal relationship, but her paternal one at all. Having normal friendships were beyond her, and even her brother and she were remote figures passing each other without connecting. Only one teacher could see behind her moods and distractedness to the real little girl hiding inside.
This book is dangerous. Readers should make sure that they have carved out a sufficient amount of time, as once they start reading, all else fades into insignificance. Jobs will be neglected, children left to fend for themselves, spouses ignored. Susan Henderson has written a book that grabs the reader by the throat, and brings them into a world where the love between a mother and child when the mother is damaged is explored. The topic is grim, but the book is anything but. Tillie is a little girl the reader will fall madly in love with. One hopes she can make her way in the world to a successful future. This book is highly recommended for all readers.
Sometimes the best way to understand a tragedy is to view it from an outsiders view of things. That is just what insight the reader is offered in the book by Susan Henderson called Up From The Blue. In this book we are taken between present day and the year 1975 in the life of Tillie Harris' life. In the present day, she is in the process of delivering her baby of 34 weeks at a hospital and trying to convince doctors that her symptoms are genuine and not something from her imagination.
In the life of Tillie Harris of 1975, we are transported in back in time to when she was eight years old. The life that she has with her father, a general who spends his life working on a missile defense system for our government whose way of running a home is very rigid and goes by a list of standards he expects in the home. When you enter this time in Tillie's life her mother is withdrawn and facing a series of depressing circumstances in her life that are peeled away slowly layer by layer to where we can understand by the ending of the book, just how Tillie's life has evolved into the present day. Her father sensing that nothing he can do will make her mom snap out of her deep depression, chooses to lose himself further into his work. It isn't until he's offered a new position at the Pentagon that things take a drastic turn for the worse. Tillie is sent off to Anne's home for a week while her brother Phil and her father pack up their home. Her mother, sits on the couch doing nothing to assist and occasionally cries. When she learns that Tillie is being taken away for awhile, her mom truly loses it and has a complete breakdown.
This was a difficult book to read, because it really does take up inside the mom's head to see the depths and destruction that severe depression can have not only on the mom, but on the family and friends as well. It provides the reader a different look into depression that isn't normally known unless you have been personally involved in dealing with someone who has been diagnosed with it. While I don't agree with how things are handled in the book with her mother's depression, it's a different way to see how each person chooses to deal with their situation and how they have to get through life and still move forward.
I received this book compliments of TLC Book Tours for my honest review and even though the story is difficult it's still worth reading. I would rate this book a 4.5 out of 5 stars for taking on a challenging subject matter and still keeping the story true and the characters life like. They are ones, especially Tillie that you find yourself rooting for and hoping for a happy ending. This book is available in paperback and eBook formats.
In 1991 in DC, while her husband Simon Williams is away, Tillie goes into labor. Scared she calls her father General Harris, whom she has not talked to in a few years and is unaware she is married let alone pregnant. He meets her at G.W. ER though she asked him not to.
His arrival takes her back to when she was eight years old and they lived in New Mexico. One day her mother Mara refused to leave her bed; frightening Tillie and her older brother Phil while their military father the colonel is away. When he returns, he finds his household in disarray and his wife in bed where he learns she has stayed for the days he was TDY. Each morning he lifted his spouse off the bed and dumped her on the floor where she stayed hysterically weeping. When he takes a position as a weapons system expert at the Pentagon, he and the two kids move to DC, but Mara is gone and the Colonel refuses to admit she existed.
This is an intriguing family drama as Tillie gives birth; all the fears she hid about her mom surface especially when her dad arrives. Character driven, readers will want to know, jut like Tillie does, what happened to Mara. Susan Henderson provides a terrific taut thriller.
Harriet Klausner
Up From the Blue begins with Matilda (Tillie) going into labor. She is in a new home and her husband is away and she calls her father whom she no longer has a relationship with. Now if that doesn't grab you, the story then segues into a time when Tillie was eight years old and Tillie's life goes into turmoil when her family is uprooted (her father was in the army) and her mother didn't come with them.
Poor Tillie; all she wants is her mother. We watch as Tillie begins to fall apart and act up until she learns the truth behind it all. Susan Henderson writes a tale that his emotional and makes me feel for this little girl that just wants her mother's love. This debut novel certainly pulls at your heart strings.
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Overview
Tillie Harris's life is in disarray—her husband is away on business, the boxes in her new home aren't unpacked, and the telephone isn't even connected yet. Though she's not due for another month, sudden labor pains force Tillie to reach out to her estranged father for help, a choice that means facing the painful memories she's been running from since she was a little girl.
An extraordinary debut from a talented new voice, Up from the Blue untangles the year in Tillie's life that...