A substantial life-and-times novel.
Wilson’s memoir chronicles the life and times of an ordinary man.
“Yes, I made mistakes,” says Wilton Latso at the beginning of Wilson’s readable, unassuming nonfiction debut. “Who hasn’t?” In the course of the nearly 500 pages that follow, Wilton remembers and retells the story of his life, from his birth in a small town in Missouri to his youth in the rough housing projects of St. Louis, where his parents moved to find work. Wilton recalls a fairly normal, non-Norman Rockwell childhood growing up with his younger sister and brother, and he doesn’t shy away from narrating the grimmer aspects of those years, from grade-school bullies to the growing enmity between his parents (“They were Christians. They were supposed to forgive each other,” he observes. “What could they have possibly done wrong to each other?”). Wilton is an outgoing boy who turns into an outgoing young man, someone who makes friends—and eventually falls in love—easily. By the time he’s 20, he has a wife, three kids and a job he dislikes, but the author’s steady narrative hand prevents the amassing details from becoming too tedious. We follow Wilton and his friends and family through the middle years of the 20th century, watch as they drink and smoke dope and fight each other and reconcile. Through it all, we see Wilton himself grow wiser and more candid about the way he’s chosen to live his life: “A life without boredom often means a lot of mistakes.” He moves from job to job, always trying to balance having a good time with being a decent, responsible guy, and Wilson does a sure-handed, efficient job of layering the events of the larger world into his characters’ lives. We see them frightened by Vietnam and disillusioned by the Nixon administration, and we see them sometimes subsumed by the recreational drug culture of the ’70s. As the cast grows older (and expands with grandchildren), there’s an enjoyable sense of having watched these people grow and—sometimes reluctantly—mature.
A substantial life-and-times novel.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0692026489
Page Count: 480
Publisher: DD Wilson Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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