RICH IN LOVE

by Josephine Humphreys ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 21, 1987

Its soap-operatic title does poor service to the gusto and spunky brightness of tone in this pleasantly tonic novel of domestic loves and misalliances. By the author of Dreams of Sleep, winner of the 1985 PEN Ernest Hemingway Award. The narrator here is 17-year-old Lucille Odom, suburban girl of nearby Charleston, S.C. Sharp-eyed, thoughtful, unflappable, and smart (in ninth grade she was placed in ""Gifted and Talented""), Lucille comes to the fore as kingpin of her family when, one day out of the blue, her mother runs off ""to live a completely different existence."" Lucille does what she can to bring some equilibrium to her bumblingly distraught father, but things are complicated more when Lucille's glamorous older sister Rae (who's 25) comes home and announces not only that she's married (to Billy McQueen, graduate student in history), but that she's pregnant too. While father Odom drifts into an affair (to Lucille's digust) with the beautician who cuts his hair, and pregnant Rae fails into a spiral of angry and fetus-endangering depression, Lucille herself falls head over heels in love with the kind and curiously attractive Billy McQueen (who's the first one around to recognize Lucille for the real person she is, instead of treating her like a bright but awkward child). There will be sexual initiations, near-deaths, and less-than-perfect reconciliations (including the one between Lucille and her mother) before a balance of sorts--though a changed one--can be achieved in the family, but the process is kept from failing prey either to melodrama or stylized comedy by the uncompromising voice and broadly observant eye of the sensitive but stalwart--and lovable--Lucille. Engaging, bright, and resonant work of its genre.

Pub Date: Sept. 21, 1987

ISBN: 0140296107

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987

Categories: FICTION