ANOMALY

Name: ANOMALY
Author: Anne Fleming
ISBN: 1-55192-831-0

by Anne Fleming ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2006

Fleming’s ability to fully inhabit the consciousness of her characters is flawless, as are her portraits of the ordinary and...

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Self-assured exploration of day-to-day family trauma, and then some.

In most ways, the Riggs family is completely ordinary, even boring. The family is composed of two devoted parents, the requisite smart-aleck son and two daughters who squabble their way from childhood to adolescence. The one anomaly is that the oldest daughter is an albino, a condition that affects everyone in the family. The novel is focused mainly on daughters Glynnis and Carol, and it traces the standard fare: childhood traumas; the Byzantine social codes of adolescent girls; unpredictable sexual desires; the comforting and smothering nature of family life. Fleming’s adherence to the rules of the coming-of-age family drama makes her clever riffs on the genre all the more potent. For example, in one of the most important childhood events, Carol, frustrated at the social exclusion she experiences because she is an albino, pushes a piano on her younger sister Glynnis, permanently disabling her. Fleming’s unabashed reliance on such extravagantly over-the-top events threatens to undermine the story, turning it into mere parody, but her gift at characterization anchors the novel and proves utterly compelling while being heavily plotted—the girls are constantly negotiating the landmines of adolescence—but character-driven all the same. Particularly noteworthy are the minor characters: Beryl Balls, the former war nurse who devotes herself to making girls self-reliant in the Girl Guides, and who cherishes an unconsummated and unrecognized romance with another nurse killed in the war; Tracy Novak, the cool lesbian with whom Glynnis falls in love at school; Grunt, Carol’s misfit, stuttering, wannabe punk boyfriend. Fleming treads a fine line between describing scenes of social trauma so pitch perfect readers will squirm in their chairs and moments of transcendence during which characters see the possibility of happiness and human connection.

Fleming’s ability to fully inhabit the consciousness of her characters is flawless, as are her portraits of the ordinary and extraordinary life of adolescent girls.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2006

ISBN: 1-55192-831-0

Page Count: 480

Publisher: Raincoast

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2006

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.