Best suited for readers who enjoy getting to know people through long, pleasant, one-sided exchanges over food and wine.
In Edwards’ debut novel, 62-year-old Marion von Muellerstahl relocates from Chicago to Berger, Mo., after the death of her husband to reconnect with family she hasn’t seen in nearly half a century.
The story begins as solitary Marion painstakingly remodels an old farmhouse with family history. Overly explanatory sentences shape the narrative as Marion reaches out to connect with long-lost friends and family. Exhaustive dialogue—usually over countless glasses of wine and tirelessly described dinners with new friends—affords the introspective heroine an opportunity to get out of her head as she settles into retirement. In spite of the many years that have passed since she was last in town, nearly every person Marion encounters welcomes her in with a warm, exceedingly polite and instant affection. These characters are so close to Marion that they read her mind, answering her unvoiced questions as soon as they arise. New friends and family share their personal lives, religious beliefs and thoughts on retirement and racism with an unbelievable affability. The most colorful character is Marion’s less-than-amiable adoptive cat, Snicklefritz, who expresses distaste for the slimy Dirk Dieckmann with a bite of his leg. This rambling story of congenial reunions is not completely without tension: There’s crime and mystery in Berger, after all. Most secrets are revealed in friendly conversations, and danger is brushed under the rug with tedious reassurances. Action scenes are diluted since they are indirectly related to readers. Long passages filled with emotion and apology can be tedious to read, but there’s a reward for those who stick with the narrative: The complicated weave of family ties starts to make sense. Secret identities and long-buried family scandals are uncovered and, like the rest of the story, easily absorbed. The final two chapters elevate the novel as Marion is finally thrust into real-time action. Perhaps the author presumes that readers, like Marion, need time and reassurance before confronting big emotions.
Best suited for readers who enjoy getting to know people through long, pleasant, one-sided exchanges over food and wine.Pub Date: Feb. 8, 2012
ISBN: 978-1468121421
Page Count: 254
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: April 20, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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