Although Ballou’s odds don’t feel insurmountable in this uneven tale, readers will likely applaud her determination as she...
A historical novel based on the real life of a 19th-century spiritualist feminist.
Allan (Addie, 2011) has spent the last few years researching and writing about the life of Addie Ballou, a poet in the late 1800s. More than anything, she says, her scholarship has led her to conclude that “the personal stories of women [have] been left untold and at a minimum misunderstood....[U]nspeakable secrets went with them to their graves.” Readers first meet Addie as she returns home from supporting the Union during the Civil War as a battlefield nurse while her husband was off fighting as a soldier. When she arrives, she finds that he disrespects her and is cruel to their children and that his family despises her. She becomes determined to live as independently as possible within the confines of her situation. Fully entrenched in the spiritualist movement, she gains some agency by lecturing across the Midwest and writing poetry for spiritualist publications, but it’s not enough: She’s not allowed any claim to her earnings, and her husband still rules the roost at home. Eventually, she takes her infant daughter and leaves her husband and her young sons, setting out on a path of spiritualism, suffrage and sovereignty. The path isn’t easy, though, as there are some marital reconciliations and legal obstacles Addie must navigate in order to finally get a divorce. Allan’s dedication to highlighting the life of an early proponent of women’s rights is admirable. Spiritualist researchers will be grateful for Allan’s thoroughly researched work (inspired, she says, by Addie’s original diaries). Newcomers to the subject matter may also find Addie’s journey interesting, if not inspirational. Overall, it’s not an especially exciting story: A pattern develops of Addie traveling somewhere to lecture, staying at someone’s house, getting advice from them and then traveling again. As a result, the scenes end up blurring together. The prose is a bit inconsistent; it’s either overwritten (“Addie suddenly saw clarity in the woman’s heretofore rambling collection of data expressed in her dialogue”) or too sparse (“There. It was said. The accusation made”). The terms of spiritualism also aren’t clearly defined, despite a brief introduction before the novel begins.
Although Ballou’s odds don’t feel insurmountable in this uneven tale, readers will likely applaud her determination as she undertakes her journey to freedom.Pub Date: Sept. 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1499575538
Page Count: 318
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 20, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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