Even more lightweight and inconsequential than previous installments in its abrupt inflation and deflation of domestic...
Eighty more bite-sized chapters bring curious readers up to date on the latest doings at 44 Scotland Street and its Edinburgh environs (The Importance of Being Seven, 2012, etc.).
The headline event, painter Angus Lordie’s upcoming wedding to Domenica Macdonald, is threatened on two fronts. First, Domenica wants Angus to give up his place, whose high ceilings make it perfect for his work, and move into 44 Scotland Street, where they can have ample horizontal room if they purchase the adjoining flat, which Domenica’s friend Antonia Collie, who plans to take vows as a lay sister in Italy, wants to sell. Then, more dangerously, that same flat throws Domenica together with her old flame Magnus Campbell, and sparks fly between them. More prosaically, Domenica’s neighbors Matthew and Elspeth Harmony, exhausted by caring for their new triplets, hire Matthew’s ex-girlfriend Pat Macgregor to help at the Something Special Gallery and Anna, a Danish au pair, to help with little Rognvald, Tobermory and Fergus. Their friend Big Lou’s online date turns out to be an Elvis impersonator. Overbearing Irene Pollock continues to make life miserable for her husband, Stuart, who affronts her by joining a Masonic lodge, and their son Bertie, the 6-year-old prodigy who’s been force-fed yoga, Italian, psychotherapy and saxophone lessons. Bertie’s friend Ranald Braveheart Macpherson persuades Bertie to put himself up for adoption on eBay and, when that falls through, to run away from home to an adoption agency in Glasgow, an adventure that produces perhaps the single most promising development since the series began six volumes ago.
Even more lightweight and inconsequential than previous installments in its abrupt inflation and deflation of domestic dilemmas. Yet, the neighborhood’s legion of fans will devour each chapter and be sorry when they’ve turned the last page.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-307-94849-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Anchor
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Well executed but a bit too obviously studied—more willed than felt.
Freudenberger (The Dissident, 2006, etc.) examines a marriage arranged via the Internet.
They met on AsianEuro.com: Amina wanted to escape from her family’s straitened circumstances in Bangladesh; George wanted someone who “did not play games, unlike some women he knew.” So here she is, in the fall of 2005 in the suburbs of Rochester, N.Y., recently married, working in retail while she studies for a teaching certificate. Her husband seems nice, if a little fussy, but he hasn’t said any more about converting to Islam as she promised her parents, and they haven’t had a Muslim wedding yet either. More disconcerting than any of that, though, is Amina’s sense that “she was a different person in Bangla than she was in English,” and she’s uncertain how to bridge the gulf between these two selves. She makes a much-needed friend in George’s cousin Kim, who lived for a while in Bombay and was briefly married to an Indian. Kim understands more about Amina’s background and her conflicts than anyone else in Rochester, so when it turns out that she and George have been hiding something important from Amina, it’s doubly shattering. However, it does prompt George to agree to bring Amina’s parents to America, and she goes to collect them in Bangladesh, where several old family conflicts flare anew. Freudenberger does well in capturing the off-kilter feelings of a young woman in a country so unlike her birthplace, and the cultural differences prompt some enjoyably wry humor. The characters are all well drawn, if a trifle pallid, which points to a larger problem. Freudenberger’s tone is detached and cool throughout, even when violent incidents are described, which makes it difficult to emotionally engage with the story. The novel is carefully researched rather than emotionally persuasive.
Well executed but a bit too obviously studied—more willed than felt.Pub Date: May 1, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-307-26884-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2012
Life in a snow globe made from dashed dreams and misunderstandings.
Crane delivers a unique and dizzying tale that delves into the emotional life of a family teetering on the brink of everything.
Best known for her three short story collections, Crane (You Must Be This Happy to Enter, 2008, etc.) graduates to novels with a surprisingly centered and cohesive debut about a family that is, as their self-centered teenage daughter would phrase it, “losing their shit.” Our most promising and emotionally truthful character is Jean Copeland, seemingly dutiful wife to husband Gordon and equally devoted mother to teenage daughter Priscilla and 9-year-old romantic Otis. But we soon learn that life in the Copeland family is not at all what it might seem on the surface. In fact, Jean is having a joyful affair with James, a member of her book club who quietly suffers from disabling depression. Gordon is dealing with his own challenges, as the self-professed expert in nearly everything is rapidly losing his memory. Priscilla thinks her future lies in reality TV shows, but that’s mostly beside the point—“First of all, Priscilla is a bitch,” Crane candidly writes. Otis’ story is sweetest as he pines away for a classmate, toiling away at heart-shaped crosswords to win her heart. The beauty in Crane’s novel is her sweep from acid commentary to heartfelt portrayal of real-life loves and losses. “Review: difficult daughter, know-it-all dad, son sweet and okay if a little weird, mom delayed potential/having affair, great grand-mother bitchy, granddad losing it. So we know where we’re starting,” writes Crane. But Crane’s offhand style is woven seamlessly with heartbreaking arcs like the suicide of Jean’s lover, Gordon’s inappropriate Facebook stalking of a former classmate, and Jean’s elegant dismissal of her daughter’s drama. “God didn’t punk you, daughter,” adds Jean in an internal monologue. “Life is what you make it. Nobody knows this better than me.”
Life in a snow globe made from dashed dreams and misunderstandings.Pub Date: June 12, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-06-209947-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Perennial/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2012
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