THE WHITE SAND ROAD

by Carol Lee Lorenzo ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1978

The interlude during which Lullah's mother ""runs away from Daddy,"" taking Lullah and three-year-old Barter from their Florida home to stay with Granny in Georgia, is told in an odd, impressionistic style that charges every encounter, passing or central, with the same peculiar intensity. In a way this is true to a child's perception of things, yet Lorenzo never does manage to draw the reader into Lullah's head. One can sympathize with the little girl's inability to say what she feels when she calls Daddy on the phone; and both her parents' discord and their less than fairy-tale reconciliation (Daddy will take back his immature wife because he doesn't want to be parted from his kids) are entirely credible. At the end a friend asks Lullah what happened to the divorce and she answers ""It just didn't work out""--a fair summary of the proceedings and an example of Lorenzo's wry touch. But, alas, the novel doesn't really work out either because style and substance never merge to create a sense of the consciousness at its center.

Pub Date: April 1, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1978

Categories: FICTION