Here, Kaplan (Comfort, 1987) offers a collection of interrelated stories (marketed as a novel) that trace the coming of age, marriage, and divorce of a suburbanite. The whole is a little too calculated, likable but lacking in real power, though two or three pieces stand out as more than mere slice-of-life Weltschmerz. Between 1951 and 1990, narrator-protagonist Frank (the point of view varies) likes to break into houses, especially his own. In ``Break-in'' (1959), he says, ``Our life in crime seemed predestined'' before breaking into his parents' house with his friends and getting drunk. In the title story, Frank and Jane, his wife of three years, break into his parents' summer house, where they learn that they ``are increasingly doomed to say things they don't mean.'' The author plays with such before-and-after parallels throughout: in ``Governotou'' (1969), Frank goes to Crete alone, while in ``Tombs'' (1976), he goes with Jena, and a guide serves as a device that dramatizes their estrangement. By the last section, ``Homecoming''—which deals with the aftereffects of divorce—the attentive reader is repaid for too much minutely observed slightness. Frank breaks into the house where he and Jena (now remarried) once lived and telephones her for a sad, anguished conversation. In the powerful ``Stand,'' he returns to his parents' summer house, which has been sold, and has a tense, frightening encounter with some locals. Finally, ``In the Night'' (1990) lets Frank recoup a great deal of earlier wimpiness and self-pity as he talks girlfriend Allie, always on the verge of breakdown, through a crisis, making his life ``more redeemable somehow.'' ``You don't get it, do you?'' the wife asks. ``You don't see how...how sad it all is.'' These stories, one reprinted in the O. Henry Prize Stories 1990, are aptly elegiac—the fictional record of a sterile, childless marriage.
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 1991
ISBN: 0-679-40517-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1991
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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
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