Lively writing, brisk pacing and a likable narrator fill out this promising debut.
A newlywed uncovers some unsettling family secrets in this debut novel.
Thirty-six-year-old Anne Kinsman’s visit to her best friend Winkie near Milwaukee turns into a surprise bridal shower. Guests include her mother, two sisters and high school classmates she hasn’t seen in the 18 years since her graduation in 1964. Despite her considerable success as a fashion designer, at the party, she reverts to “Anne-the-Elephant,” deflecting mean-spirited comments about her low weight and lifelong dieting. Her 55-year-old Jewish fiance, Barry, owner of a line of upscale women’s boutiques, finds her size less troubling than her virginity, which she’s determined to cling to until after the marriage vows. Soon after the shower, the couple receives troubling news: The promiscuous Winkie is dead under mysterious circumstances, leaving behind an abusive husband and a perceptive 11-year-old girl, Anne’s goddaughter. Winkie’s death proves to be the loose thread that unwinds years of secrets. Anne’s strong narrative voice guides the story through WASP family get-togethers, newlywed clashes and office politics, offering pointed observations about relationships. “I love my father. I used to like him,” she says. She also weaves in considerable, sometimes catty, fashion commentary. Anne’s reaction after Winkie’s death is particularly well-drawn, showing the types of nonsensical thoughts that accompany the shock of death: “Ding-dong, the Winkie’s dead. Which old Wink? The Winkie-Wink.” In contrast, Barry’s family history tales, repeated more than once almost verbatim, don’t have the same ring of truth as Anne’s. However, they do echo the novel’s underlying exploration of how well you can truly know another person and what lies behind the facade of perfection. The book’s genre is a bit muddled: An early, long sex scene promises a steamy, romantic bend, while Winkie’s mysterious death hints at a possible crime or mystery thread. Neither genre is fully embraced, but as the book progresses, the distinction doesn’t matter. The excellent pacing—except for the dragging denouement containing the last of the family secrets—helps make for an easy, satisfying read.
Lively writing, brisk pacing and a likable narrator fill out this promising debut.Pub Date: Nov. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1477423011
Page Count: 360
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 7, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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