This portrait of an American family has little lyricism, but a multitude of brief and often tantalizing depictions of...
The lovingly written memoir of an Irish-American family, beginning with Thomas Dougan, immigrant and Revolutionary War patriot, and closing with its author at her mother’s funeral in the 1960s.
The history of the Dougans follows the history of the U.S. from colonial times, through the periods of slavery, Westward expansion, industrialization, the World Wars, and the Vietnam era. It chronicles the suffering and success of generation after generation of the family, whose early members seem uniformly brave, generous, enterprising, and hardworking. Once the country has been settled, however, the family begins to show its weaker strains; there are signs of mental illness and alcoholism, as well as bad luck and poor judgment. The narrative becomes a litany of chronological facts–culled from family archives–rather than an exploration of character or molding of a story. In other hands, the raw material of the book would be enough for a dozen novels. Family members are distinguished momentarily, but gradually fade into a collective self, as the book follows the arduous journey of yet another covered wagon heading south, then west, from Pennsylvania to North Carolina, Indiana, Missouri, and Kansas. Far too many young women die in childbirth, and parents hold their breath until their children reach the age of 11, whereupon they feel relatively confident their children will survive the harsh life of the pioneers. The Quaker influence is strong; this open-minded family befriends (some of them even marrying) Native Americans, African-Americans, and Jews. The chapter on the generation that supported the Underground Railroad is moving, as is the final portion of the book, in which a war bride reunites with her young husband, only to find him shell-shocked, addicted, and abusive. The author emerges at this point to describe the resulting dysfunctional and battered family of women. The youngest, she dreams of her family's "vanished glory," setting out to research and tell their story.
This portrait of an American family has little lyricism, but a multitude of brief and often tantalizing depictions of admirable Dougan descendants.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 1936
ISBN: 1-58982-080-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.
Another reboot of Jane Austen?!? Hadlow pulls it off in a smart, heartfelt novel devoted to bookish Mary, middle of the five sisters in Pride and Prejudice.
Part 1 recaps Pride and Prejudice through Mary’s eyes, climaxing with the humiliating moment when she sings poorly at a party and older sister Elizabeth goads their father to cut her off in front of everyone. The sisters’ friend Charlotte, who marries the unctuous Mr. Collins after Elizabeth rejects him, emerges as a pivotal character; her conversations with Mary are even tougher-minded here than those with Elizabeth depicted by Austen. In Part 2, two years later, Mary observes on a visit that Charlotte is deferential but remote with her husband; she forms an intellectual friendship with the neglected and surprisingly nice Mr. Collins that leads to Charlotte’s asking Mary to leave. In Part 3, Mary finds refuge in London with her kindly aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner. Mrs. Gardiner is the second motherly woman, after Longbourn housekeeper Mrs. Hill, to try to undo the psychic damage wrought by Mary’s actual mother, shallow, status-obsessed Mrs. Bennet, by building up her confidence and buying her some nice clothes (funded by guilt-ridden Lizzy). Sure enough, two suitors appear: Tom Hayward, a poetry-loving lawyer who relishes Mary’s intellect but urges her to also express her feelings; and William Ryder, charming but feckless inheritor of a large fortune, whom naturally Mrs. Bennet loudly favors. It takes some maneuvering to orchestrate the estrangement of Mary and Tom, so clearly right for each other, but debut novelist Hadlow manages it with aplomb in a bravura passage describing a walking tour of the Lake District rife with seething complications furthered by odious Caroline Bingley. Her comeuppance at Mary’s hands marks the welcome final step in our heroine’s transformation from a self-doubting wallflower to a vibrant, self-assured woman who deserves her happy ending. Hadlow traces that progression with sensitivity, emotional clarity, and a quiet edge of social criticism Austen would have relished.
Entertaining and thoroughly engrossing.Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-12941-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Dec. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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