An engrossing and epic family tale bursting with curious characters and subplots.
This series opener centers on the machinations of a turbulent family.
Nine-year-old Theo Schism squeezes himself into a refrigerator and shuts the door in 1953. After his death, the Schisms ultimately split apart: George and Lucy divorce while Theo’s little sister, Isabel, goes off on her own at a young age. In a story that spans decades, the family members’ lives are generally tumultuous. Lucy, at one point, threatens to kill herself; George’s second wife actually commits suicide; and Isabel’s stepfather, Rance Murdock, should be nowhere near an adolescent girl. Also populating the story is Leif Lambrochet, the father of teen Isabel’s baby, though his sister, Clare, is doubtful he’s the dad. While Leif enlists in the Army and fights in Vietnam in the 1970s, his friend Roberto “Robot” Larch dodges the draft by hiding out in Canada. As the years pass, shocking revelations await some of these individuals, including Isabel’s daughter, Abra Cadabra “Snap” Weaver. In the early 21st century, Snap, as executor of Lucy’s will, scatters her grandmother’s ashes and learns a surprising amount of information about the woman’s past. Veith’s novel, despite being only Book 1 of a trilogy, is extensive. The nonlinear narrative hops around decades, although its intermittent focus on Leif and Robot keeps it mostly in the Vietnam War era. The author’s polished prose generates smooth scene transitions, making ever changing time periods easy to track. The writing is furthermore consistent, such that there’s not much distinction between different voices, including in Clare’s journal entries and George’s memoir that Isabel periodically reads. Regardless, the lively characters are embroiled in absorbing melodrama (one family member may blame another for what happened to Theo) and the occasional crime (Isabel seems convinced that one particular death is a murder).
An engrossing and epic family tale bursting with curious characters and subplots. (editor’s note, dedication, acknowledgments)Pub Date: Jan. 30, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-72832-950-5
Page Count: 650
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.
When tragedy strikes, a mother and daughter forge a new life.
Morgan felt obligated to marry her high school sweetheart, Chris, when she got pregnant with their daughter, Clara. But she secretly got along much better with Chris’ thoughtful best friend, Jonah, who was dating her sister, Jenny. Now her life as a stay-at-home parent has left her feeling empty but not ungrateful for what she has. Jonah and Jenny eventually broke up, but years later they had a one-night stand and Jenny got pregnant with their son, Elijah. Now Jonah is back in town, engaged to Jenny, and working at the local high school as Clara’s teacher. Clara dreams of being an actress and has a crush on Miller, who plans to go to film school, but her father doesn't approve. It doesn’t help that Miller already has a jealous girlfriend who stalks him via text from college. But Clara and Morgan’s home life changes radically when Chris and Jenny are killed in an accident, revealing long-buried secrets and forcing Morgan to reevaluate the life she chose when early motherhood forced her hand. Feeling betrayed by the adults in her life, Clara marches forward, acting both responsible and rebellious as she navigates her teenage years without her father and her aunt, while Jonah and Morgan's relationship evolves in the wake of the accident. Front-loaded with drama, the story leaves plenty of room for the mother and daughter to unpack their feelings and decide what’s next.
The emotions run high, the conversations run deep, and the relationships ebb and flow with grace.Pub Date: Dec. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5420-1642-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Review Posted Online: Oct. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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