At the Water's Edge by Sara Gruen

Maddie, her husband Ellis and their best friend Hank are the most self indulged and indolent people.  They don't work and live only for the next party or entertainment.  When their poor behaviour at a society event causes embarrassment to Ellis's parents, the two men hatch a plan to flee the country and go in search of the Loch Ness monster.  Ellis's father tried to find the beast years earlier, and instead found scorn.  He thinks if he can find it he will restore his father's good name and be welcomed back home.

As I was listening to this audio book, I was disgusted by the three main characters.  They were not nice people and only sought to indulge them selves.  I had almost decided to give up on the book, though I recalled how much I loved Ms. Gruen's earlier book Water for Elephants, that I had to give it more of a chance.

Fortunately It wasn't long before I started to notice slight changes in Maddie's attitude. She paid more attention to the war raging around them and was concerned about the injured soldiers she was seeing.  It was this change that encouraged me to continue.

Once Maddie started to pay more attention to the real world around her, she began to question her position and her behaviour.  I liked the person she was becoming.  From that point on, I wanted to keep listening every chance I could.  I was cheering her on and wanted her to develop into a considerate and deserving person.

Author Sara Gruen did a great job with these three characters.  First she made me hate them, the really like one and grow to loath the other two even more.  A success when an author can make me feel such a range of emotions just by using words.

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