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Unfinished Portrait of Jessica

Book Summary

Reviewed by Monica Wyatt

Jessica worships her father and blames her mother for their separation. She punishes her mom by sulking in her room until she is sent to Mexico to spend Christmas with her dad. There she learns the truth about her selfish father and realizes that she loves her mother after all. Highly realistic adolescent confusion.

Is It Any Good?

4

Conflicts with parents consume many teenagers, and blaming the parent who stays behind is all too common. Here Richard Peck examines a girl who blames her mother for her father's failings. When Jessica finally allows herself to see the truth about her father, she can see the truth about her mother and at last develop a loving relationship with her. While it all may seem too neat, it serves to make the point that we can blind ourselves to our own best interests.

The book requires some emotional maturity and thus may best please older, more experienced readers. It includes discussion of the art world, which intrigues some readers but bores others.

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