TO SEE YOUR FACE AGAIN

by Eugenia Price ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 4, 1985

A sequel to the best-selling Savannah (1982) that advances the stories of the Mackay, Stiles and Browning clans another 20-odd years as they venture away from their fair city to settle the Georgia upcountry. Price (author of six historicals prior to Savannah) must have recognized halfway through the writing of this tome that she'd never get her ponderous cast of loquacious, slow-as-molasses Savannahians up to the Civil War without expanding the original two-book project into a quartet. To See Your Face Again is thus left to run its sluggish, loosely-plotted, undramatic course with only a petulant heroine--red-haired Natalie Browning--to make ineffectual attempts to galvanize things. Natalie's the 16-year-old daughter of Savannah merchant Mark Browning (protagonist of the first book), beloved and spoiled by all--especially treacly mommy and daddy (""That beautiful Browning girl makes a man want to--spank and hug her. . .""). As the novel opens, she boards the steamer Pulaski, making its ill-fated maiden voyage from Savannah to Baltimore; when the steamer's boiler explodes, she's saved by Burke Latimer, a humble but ambitious carpenter, and it's love on the churning sea for the two of them as they await rescue. But Burke disappears shortly thereafter to establish himself in Cass County, Georgia, before dating to ask for her hand (the old ""if I were a carpenter and you were a lady"" syndrome), leaving Natalie to harangue her father for a year before convincing him to search for Burke. Ultimately, most of the Browning family head for the upcountry; Burke is located, making his way as a builder in Cassville with the help of two cheerful Indians (a sister and brother who've managed to evade the US government-enforced Cherokee evacuation of the county); and Natalie proceeds to throw herself at a not unresponsive Burke, at the same time proving her total incompetence at frontier housewivery (she accidentally bums down Burke's cabin). They marry anyway, though Burke sends her back to Savannah on the day after the wedding to learn how to cook and sew. Price fleshes out some diverting historical material here, creates a nice sense of the differences between 19th-century city/country living, and peoples this novel with myriad, amusingly-named character types (Sheftall Sheftall, Guzaway Bug Lamar). But her plot is dull as dishwater and the main characters unenthrailing, just like those of them described in a book she's reading: ""Everyone is go good and Christian I simply don't believe them."" For doggedly patient historical devotees. Others should reread Gone With The Wind and take a wait-and-see attitude about coming books three and four of the series.

Pub Date: Oct. 4, 1985

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1985

Categories: FICTION