A first novel about thirtysomething Katherine, single parent and late bloomer, that breathlessly pushes all the right contemporary buttons—only to reach an uplifting, old-fashioned conclusion. Convent-educated in Louisiana, Katherine had wanted to be a poet so badly that she dropped out of college freshman year and returned to work in her beloved New Orleans. Katherine, a daddy's girl who grew up in a small town along the Mississippi, has been shaped by her Catholic education, especially in her attitude toward sex—which means that when she meets handsome English prof Eric, and they soon make love, marriage is obligatory. A daughter is born shortly thereafter, followed by a son, and soon Katherine— overwhelmed by motherhood—finds herself drinking more and reading less. A move to North Carolina strains an already rocky marriage; and though there's a third baby, Eric's continued infidelities are too much. Katherine leaves, bravely makes a home for herself and the kids, and starts writing for the local paper. But the children are a problem, though she loves them intensely, and so is sex, for there's still all that lingering Catholic guilt. And despite a few affairs, including one with married Ian (who prefers her without her kids), Katherine's love life remains unsatisfactory. Then, just as her career begins to take off, her father's death and a near- fatal accident involving the youngest child precipitate the inevitable crisis. Tired of being simultaneously mom, lover, and career woman, Katherine hands the kids over to Eric and flees to California with Ian—but in an obligatory epiphany realizes that she has ``never truly dug in for a fight.'' Eventually, she'll head home to reclaim the children and save Louisiana from developers and pollution. Typical of the genre in which every mistake is forgiven if an allegedly strong, talented, and sexy woman finally grows up.
Pub Date: April 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-385-30807-8
Page Count: 312
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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