This work of historical fiction centers around three women who have been indelibly shaped by Elvis Presley, both his music and the man himself.
This second novel by Morgan (One August Day, 2013), set in the Southern United States during the 1970s, is organized in three distinct sections, each chronicling the story of a different woman whose life has been heavily influenced by Elvis. They include Velis Emerson, the agoraphobic secretary of the rock star’s Tupelo, Mississippi, fan club; Priscilla Johnson, a nurse whose brief acquaintance with the singer disrupts her personal life; and Notary Midgette, a longtime domestic worker at Graceland in Memphis, compelled to seek her employer’s help when her wayward son becomes involved with criminals. The three main sections are punctuated by interludes in the imagined voice of Elvis’ “Satnin Mama,” Gladys Love Smith Presley. The three women’s stories are situated in the context of the musician’s personal troubles during the final years of his life: the toxic lackeys around him, prescription drug abuse, the loss of his beloved mother, and the devastating end of his marriage. The novel explores the role of Christian faith in times of hardship through the struggles of the rock legend as well as those of Velis, Priscilla, and Notary. Through the lens of these women’s admiration for Elvis (and their speculation about his private life), Morgan deftly explores the universal difficulties of all kinds of relationships: within families, among friends, between lovers. While each of the three women’s stories ends on a cliffhanger, a final section that centers on the public reaction to the artist’s death provides resolution for each of them. The novel benefits from its engaging, sympathetic portrayal of three unique women; Elvis may be the center of gravity around which they orbit, but the stories of Velis, Priscilla, and Notary should plant a mark on readers and leave many wanting to know more. The tale’s careful structure also deepens the sense of reflection and refraction among the characters, calling attention to the universality of the challenges they face as well as their specificity. A subtle, affecting glimpse into the lives of a trio of singular women molded by the works and personal character of a rock icon.
Pub Date: July 4, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4944-6006-8
Page Count: 280
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Oct. 19, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
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
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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