Another female-bonding story from Delinsky (Together Alone, 1995, etc.), whose sometimes syrupy storytelling is given an edge here, thanks to the carefully researched theme of Alzheimer's. Grace Dorian is ``The Confidante,'' a world-famous advice columnist whose daughter Francine and 23-year-old granddaughter Sophie live in as much awe of her as everybody else . . . until Grace starts to forget things, turns out columns that don't quite make sense, gets in a car accident because she couldn't remember how to stop. The diagnosis provided by young doctor Davis Marcoux is grim—Alzheimer's—and thrusts all three generations into an emotional whirlwind. Francine especially feels she can't go on without her domineering mother, for whom she's worked and with whom she's lived, for most of her life. At Grace's command, and against Francine's better judgment, the Alzheimer's is kept a secret from the public, but one clever reporter, Robin Duffy, suspects that something's up; making one of her first autonomous decisions, Francine decides to hire Robin to help a rapidly failing Grace write her autobiography, leaving Francine free to write Grace's column full-time. Meanwhile, personal as well as professional lives are suffering; Grace wants Francine and Sophie to marry before she dies, but Francine is bored by Robert, Grace's choice for her, and rebellious Sophie is dating Gus, the family chauffeur. And there's the mystery: As Grace's mind deteriorates, details slip concerning her heretofore never-mentioned childhood; only Father Jim—Grace's oldest friend and her own confidante—knows the dramatic secrets of the past. With the help of Sophie, Robin, and Dr. Marcoux (by now far more to Francine than her mother's doctor), Francine begins to unlock those secrets—as well as some of her own. Delinsky's ability to put a human face on this horrifying disease gives a strength to what could have been a conventional romance-genre entrant. ($250,000 ad/promo)
Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1996
ISBN: 0-06-017781-0
Page Count: 368
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 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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