Jennie Shortridge's debut novel Riding With The Queen marked her as a writer to watch. Now with Eating Heaven, she firmly establishes herself as a writer of note.

Once again, Shortridge displays her ability to explore the complex dynamics binding female members of a family. Here, her narrator is Eleanor Samuels, a freelance food writer whose obsession with food extends far beyond anything required for her work.

Lacking a satisfying personal life and feeling herself less successful than her two sisters, Eleanor turns to food as if it were the perfect best friend, able to console, help celebrate or even energize.

But all this abruptly changes when her beloved Uncle Benny falls ill. Initially, Eleanor's caregiving mostly consists of preparing special appetizing meals for him. However, when she learns Benny has terminal cancer, she moves in with him to become his caretaker. It's then that her appetite abruptly leaves her.

With great sensitivity Shortridge details the physical and emotional toll caregivers for the terminally ill face. Readers who have assumed that role will identify with Eleanor's feelings of inadequacy as she moves through it uncertainly.

They will also identify with her guilt when she takes a weekend reprieve to spend some time with a new gentleman in her life and Benny's health dramatically shifts to the final stage during Eleanor's brief absence.

As the novel moves forward, Shortridge deftly inserts flashbacks revealing that Uncle Benny is really not a relative but that he has long played an integral role in the lives of Eleanor and her sisters. There also is the mysterious bond (now glaringly absent) between Benny and their mother, which puzzles the daughters.

Shortridge uses Benny's illness to explore the varying stages of grief as evidenced by Eleanor's sisters. Yet, it's also Benny's illness that unites the sisters as it fully reveals complex family secrets and frees Eleanor to be her own person.

Shortridge has written an immensely wise and readable book that will provoke amusement, tears and thoughtful reflection. Unfortunately, the final chapters seem contrived and unnecessary, detracting from an otherwise first-rate book.

Joan Hinkemeyer is a Denver librarian and freelance writer.