The Gift by Danielle Steel

The next book I am choosing to review is another book by Danielle Steel. This is a very heart warming and emotional book that I feel readers would definitely find to be inspirational.  I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.

Synopsis: This book takes place in the 1950s in a small town. It is about a family that fell about after their daughter Annie died of meningitis at the age of five. Her parent’s marriage unravels, and their teenage son Tommy starts struggling in school and starts spending a lot of time outside of the house and eating his meals at a local diner.

The other storyline is about a sixteen-year-old girl named Maribeth. Her father is very strict and controlling, and after she goes to prom, she becomes pregnant by a high school senior who she met for the first time. After her dad finds out she is pregnant, her dad forces Maribeth to leave the house and go to a convent until the baby is born.

However, Maribeth hates living in the convent and runs away to the small town where Tommy lives and gets a job as a waitress. She and Tommy start spending time together and become friends and eventually fall in love and Tommy finds out she is pregnant.

Tommy wants to keep the baby and marry Maribeth, but Maribeth wants to give the baby up for adoption and continue her studies.  She meets Tommy’s family and decides to let them adopt her baby, and promises to come back after she has completed her studies.

Review:

After reading this book, there are several themes that stood out to me:

The first theme is about appreciating the people in your life while you have them because you never know how long you will have them for.

“Maybe some people just aren’t meant to be in our lives forever. Maybe some people are just passing through. It’s like some people just come through our lives to bring us something: a gift, a blessing, a lesson we need to learn. And that’s why they’re here. You’ll have that gift forever.”

Maribeth helps Tommy to come to terms with Annie’s death by realizing the gift she was to their family while she was there. Maribeth was also a gift to Tommy and his family because she helped them to come together again as a family and gives them the gift of her child.

Another theme I found is the theme of Maribeth having different expectations and plans for her life than the rest of her family. Her father expected her to get married and stay at home and raise a family, but Maribeth wanted more things in her life than just getting married and having a family. She wanted a career and to explore the world, an education, and a husband who she loved and respected.

“But she still had her dreams. No one could take those from her. Not even her father. Maribeth wanted a career, a more interesting place to live, an exciting job, an education if she could ever afford one, and eventually a husband she loved and respected.”

I was very lucky to come from parents who valued education and encouraged my sisters and I to pursue our dreams. I admired Maribeth for knowing what she wanted and not giving up on her dreams and goals. This is a quality that I think is definitely admirable.

The final quote that stood out to me was “She didn’t want to let go of him, or the baby, but sometimes life made you give up what you love most.”

What this means is that sometimes as much as you love someone, you aren’t meant to be with them the rest of your life. As much as Maribeth loved Tommy, it was not the right time in her life to be with him, and not the right time for her to have a baby.