Book Review: Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers

Life on the Refrigerator Door: Notes Between a Mother and a Daughter: A Novel in Notes

by Alice Kuipers (Kuipers)

 

Life on the Refrigerator Door is an epistolary story of one year in the life of a single mother and her 15-year-old daughter. They both are busy and we follow their lives as we read the quick notes they leave for each other on the fridge. Then breast cancer makes a visit.

 

There aren’t notes for each day of the year, rather we see into the segments of their lives yet there are enough notes to follow along with their stories. We watch the self-absorbed teen as she matures, and the mother as she learns to back off.

 

My favorite quote from the book:

 

“Mom,

 

I went to the store. See inside the fridge. I watered the plants. I cleaned out Peter’s cage. I tidied the living room. And the kitchen. And I did the dishes.

 

I’m going to bed.

 

Your live-in servant,

Claire”

 

A very quick read; have a box of tissues at the end.

 

[ official Life on the Refrigerator Door page on the official Alice Kuipers web site ]

 

Recommended by Charlotte M.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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