Review of Want by Barbara Langhorst

I love the one-liner on the back cover: “Sometimes it feels as if the world has to end before you get a new kitchen.”
So begins the journey of Delphine. She “accidentally” orders a new kitchen online—huge accident in my opinion, but made believable by the author—in her hope to rejuvenate her small home on the prairies, to serve her “want.
Then Delphine’s brother, Paul, comes for a visit with his belief that the world as they know it is swiftly winding down. Delphine and her husband, Hugo, are semi-convinced and join Paul in his creation of the perfect, secret place to survive in the aftermath of now.
The author writes conversationally, bringing the reader into the story, into the decisions, and into the oft-troubled minds of the characters. I begin to see how mental illness is just that, an illness, and that the person under the heaviness of it all is still the person. We are all just people on the journey, coping as best we can, which sometimes includes falling apart.
Langhorst’s humour along the way is human and realistic and relieving. Her character Delphine’s obsession with paint colours and redecorating is a recurring, calming theme: Shantung, Spring Celadon, Clotted Cream, Norwegian Fjord, Grand Piano, Celtic Sea, Parisian Kiss, Morning in Rome…
There are also many gems that caught my attention. Here are two:
“At last [Mom] sat down in her easy chair, closed her eyes and dozed off…By the time [Dad] went to wake her, she was already cold.” (p. 16)
“We had never doubted that the kids would all stay close, share Sunday dinners, we’d all play cat’s cradle with the threads of one another’s lives.” (pp. 160-161)
A fascinating look into the human mind, as well as how we all view life through our own particular filters.