CLIFF WALK

by Margaret Dickson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 25, 1986

In earlier work (Octavia's Hill, 1983; Maddy's Song, 1985), Dickson successfully combined strong rural Maine color with grim family-tragedy plotlines. Here, her Maine crackles as atmospherically as ever, but the incest-murder-madness mix has poured over the line into gothic formula. After little Crelly Kemp's adored parents die in a car accident, she and her brothers Gene and Jimmy go off to live with their Uncle Bib and Aunt Alice on a rundown farm near the small town of Edgar. But Bib and Alice turn out to be classically creepy stepparents--members of a child pornography ring, practically cackling with evil. The depraved reading material they leave around the house drives Gene into such a frenzy that he attempts to rape Crelly; she runs away to stay with more normal relatives, keeping the secret of Bib and Alice locked deep within her heart. Meanwhile, back on the farm, Gene and Alice begin an affair that results in their murdering Bib (because he's in the way) and little Jimmy (because he won't join in). Crelly has by now gone off to college in Portland, where she meets and marries John Werner, a brilliant young mathematician from a snobbish old-money family. His mother is so hostile to Crelly that the marriage nearly breaks up in its infancy; however, the two go out to a wild and deserted island to work out their problems--and brother Gene shows up. He's now a full-fledged raving lunatic who has done away with Alice and wants to kill Crelly because she's escaped his own fate. There's a melodramatic confrontation on a nighttime cliff high above the ocean; then, after much frothing and ranting, Gene gets his, and John and Crelly survive, realizing that there are worse things in life than Mrs. Werner complaining that the roast is overdone. Overall, some capable workmanship and skillful writing here, though it dwells among overblown emotions and genre cutouts.

Pub Date: Feb. 25, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986

Categories: FICTION