The Need by Helen Phillips

Wednesday, June 30, 2021--San Antonio

The Need by Helen Phillips is requires a lot of thinking for trying to understand it.  In the book, Phillips seems to be trying to express what is going on in a woman's mind as she handles the burden of juggling a career, a marriage to a husband who travels, raising two young children, and keeping a household running (meals, laundry, cleaning, etc.). In many of the reviews of it, references are made to it being a horror story.  The book was long-listed for The National Book Award and was listed among the best novels of 2019 by a number of publications and organizations.  Ratings by readers cover the whole range of possibilities.  The book was easy to read, but hard to understand (to make sense of).  I gave the book 3 stars out of 5.