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FORTUNATE LIVES

After her mediocre second novel (The Time of Her Life, 1984), Dew resurrects the Howells family from her stunning debut, Dale Loves Sophie to Death (1981), and proves, once again, that common sense and elegant prose can transform ordinary lives into compelling fiction. Since last heard from, the Howells (``the world's last happy family'') have endured their share of tragedy. The death of son Toby in a car accident remains ``unresolved'' for the rest of the family six years later, as oldest son David prepares to leave for Harvard. Martin and Dinah, now in their 40s, spend this summer sorting out their emotional lives as parents—and as people of impeccable honor, manners, and good taste. Which, in Dew's view, doesn't mean they're heavily repressed. These are well-meaning, liberalish parents who enjoy life in their college town (a thinly disguised Williamstown, Mass.), where Martin teaches and Dinah maintains ``the physical equilibrium of their domestic arrangements.'' Dinah's unconditional and overwhelming love for her children doesn't prevent her from mothering those who stray onto her always open hearth. This summer, Netta Breckenridge, a young, hyperintense philosopher, wanders into view, along with her sad little daughter. While Dinah frets over Martin's fascination with the brilliant instructor, she fails to realize the obvious—her little boy David is now a young man with intellectual and sexual appetites of his own. As Dinah fears the various threats to her admittedly arbitrary domestic order, Martin tries to make peace with the boy who inadvertently killed his son. Throughout here, Dinah rewrites a letter solicited by Harvard's Dean of Students about her son. It's a rather trite way of marking her progress through this summer of ``letting go''—and unworthy of the more profound insight into parenthood that distinguishes this emotionally precise novel. Despite some glaring loose ends—will we hear from the Howells again?—this is a defiantly small fiction and, in its way, an extraordinary tale of how self-identity emerges from the bonds of family.

Pub Date: March 23, 1992

ISBN: 0-688-10781-8

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1992

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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

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MAGIC HOUR

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

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