In this sprawling but amiable ninth novel, Adams (Almost Perfect, 1993, etc.) returns to the time (1930s) and place (North Carolina) of some of her earlier and, arguably, best writing, most memorable in short stories such as "Roses, Rhododendron" and "Verlie I Say Unto You." Harry and Cynthia Baird, along with their young daughter Abigail, move from New England to Pinehill, North Carolina, in the years just before the WW II. They've chosen Pinehill as a place to start over—leaving behind old flirtations and bad debts—because they sense that they'll seem exotic, even glamorous, to the small-town southerners and, alas, because Cynthia is secretly fascinated by Russell Byrd, a famous poet who lives outside of town. Once arrived, the Bairds are swept into a life that's both more complicated and sweeter than anything they'd expected. Deciphering the southerners, white and black, adulterous and faithful, poet and nymphomaniac, turns out to be an impossible and thoroughly irresistible occupation—so irresistible in fact that when it comes time for the Bairds to leave Pinehill they can't really tear themselves away. There are many detours to the plotline here, but, in all, Adams guides us deftly along. She's great at gossip, and she creates characters with all her usual flair (and overabundance of parentheses!). If some of the Pinehill people seem too archetypical to be true—one southern belle, one Jewish intellectual, one sullen black maid, etc.—others make up for it, especially moody, confused Russ Byrd, his poor wife Sally Jane, and, most of all, the Bairds, who surprise even themselves by turning out to be not nearly as shallow as they thought they were. Not a new recipe, but a nice mix of sugar and spite. Adams is at home here, finally, and it shows.
Pub Date: Oct. 12, 1995
ISBN: 1568953240
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
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