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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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