CARETAKERS

by Tabitha King ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 20, 1983

Southern Gothic in Nodd's Ridge, Maine--as two dying old friends (and lovers?) go through an Easter weekend ordeal in 1982. . . while flashbacks fill in their overlapping, tragedy-shadowed, mystery-flecked lives. Joe Nevers, 73, has been caretaker for the rich Christopher family for over 50 years, tending their big lake-side summer manse; but the house has been mostly vacant lately, except for unannounced, drunken visits by 60-ish widow/anthropologist Torie Christopher--who seems to be in even worse shape than usual this snowy weekend, having wrecked her old Cadillac and gone into a semi-catatonic state in the empty house. Joe soon realizes that Torie isn't drunk, but zonked on pain-killers, dying of cancer, planning an Easter suicide. Then, when Joe has a coronary while working on the Cadillac and gets pinned beneath the car, Torie emerges from her stupor long enough to make super-human efforts to save Joe's life. And meanwhile, throughout, in non-chronological order, there are dramatic episodes from their two lives, with recurring hints of their mutual attraction: Torie is seen as an edgy, good-looking 1940s co-ed (in a secret, degrading affair with a kinky professor), as the hesitant bride of scion Guy Christopher, as a non-player in some 1950s adultery games, as a grieving mother (two of her children die in freakish accidents); childless Joe is seen as the Christopher-clan's trusted servant/friend, as the husband of ambitious Marion (who leaves him), later as the husband of prim, grim widow Cora--a shrew who drives him to wife-beating, then threatens him with prosecution if he tries to divorce her. (Despite all, Joe will quietly stand by Cora through terminal illness--a deathbed sequence that includes her bitter-yet-proud confession of father/incest.) Did Joe and Torie ever consummate their obvious yen for each other? That's the mystery nicely threading through this sturdy mosaic. And, just before Joe dies (with Torie now deciding not to speed up her own demise), there'll be a not-too-surprising revelation about the paternity of one of Torie's kids. . . and a slightly-more-surprising explanation of one of those child-death tragedies. King (Small World) tends to overdo the salty-oldster repartee here, with sarcastic Torie and taciturn Joe not always credible through their Down East liebestod. Her prose, too, sometimes strains for effect: self-conscious, pseudo-literary. But many of the flashback sequences are darkly intriguing, the laconic narration only occasionally slips over into sensationalism--and, with strong Maine atmosphere, this is a dour, modestly involving family-secret novel, firmly focused on two unhappy, unlucky, flinty-yet-lusty Down East characters.

Pub Date: Sept. 20, 1983

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1983

Categories: FICTION