UNCLAIMED TREASURES

by Patricia MacLachlan ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 25, 1984

Two long weeks they had lived here. And in those two weeks Nicholas had become an artist. And Willa had found her true love. And the apples had come. A lifetime."" This is romance and moonshine: layer upon layer, meaning interknit with meaning--totally unreal, and hugely seductive. Quirky, wry Nicholas and ardent Willa are twins, age eleven. Dad teaches college English--Willa, going to vacuum his study, loses herself in a student's Wanda-and-Ted romance. Mom is pregnant--mundanely, in Willa's view. Next door is new-friend Horace Morris--steady, matter-of-fact; his artist father Matthew; his musician maiden aunts, the Unclaimed Treasures. It is Matthew who pronounces Nicholas an artist already, and who is Willa's instant ""tall and solemn"" true-love. But it is absent wife/mother Winnie, ""out in the world doing something important and extraordinary,"" in whom Willa sees the contrast with her own mother's ordinary state. Willa poses for Matthew--sitting in for Winnie, wondering what he sees, whose face will appear. Meanwhile she sees the new baby move; hears that her mother was ""joyous"" when she and Nicholas were born; and, in a lambent moment, receives ""a picture. . . of your sister."" (A precautionary sonogram.) Recurrently, consumingly: ""What was ordinary? What was not?"" (Intertwined is a family of simon-pure eccentrics, headed by great-grandfather Old Pepper and his parrot Bella-Marie, both of whom also have opinions on the subject.) The absent Winnie returns, seen only by Willa--who, recognizing that it's Winnie Matthew painted, effects a reconciliation, and accepts a kiss from Horace. And from the third interleaved narrative (#2 is Wanda-and-Ted) we learn that Willa and Horace marry. . . and what we have been reading is Willa-and-Nicholas reminiscing, a dozen years later. That it all does hold together, at least for the duration, is a testament to MacLachlan's structural finesse and heady atmospherics.

Pub Date: April 25, 1984

ISBN: 0064401898

Page Count: -

Publisher: Harper & Row

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1984

Categories: FICTION