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THIS HOUSE IS MINE

Name: THIS HOUSE IS MINE
Author: Dörte Hansen
ISBN: 978-1-250-10085-6

by Dörte Hansen translated by Anne Stokes ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 2016

Hansen’s debut novel was a surprise bestseller in Germany but will probably find a cooler reception here.

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The inhospitable farmhouse of a cranky German dowager becomes home to three generations of unhappy women.

Fleeing Prussia in the wake of World War II, having had to leave her baby by the side of the road to freeze, Hildegard von Kamcke arrives with her remaining daughter, Vera, at the farm of Ida Eckhoff and her son, Karl, or at least the “cardboard cutout” of Karl who returned from battle. “Two women and only one stove never bode well,” and Hildegard’s marriage to Karl only makes the tension between the women worse. By the time Vera is 14, Ida has hanged herself in the attic and Hildegard has run off with another man, the father of a half sister who will be named Marlene. In an interwoven storyline set in the present day, Marlene’s daughter Anne’s marriage falls apart. She takes refuge at the farm, where her aunt Vera still lives, though she's knocked off Karl a while back. If this sounds hard to follow, it is. A bunch of minor characters with unimportant roles in the plot—if there is one—don’t help. One enjoyable aspect of the book is its ironic take on the unrequited enthusiasm of urban types for country living. Burkhard Weisswerth, for example, moves out to the area planning to start "A Taste of Country Life, a magazine for people who’d had enough, downshifters like himself….A man never forgot the first potato that he took out of the earth with his own hands…and, yes, it had humbled him, sensitized him to the wonderful, simple folk out here who lived from the work of their hands.” These simple folk, on the other hand, are unimpressed. When Anne enrolls her son in day care, the director is dismayed but not surprised to learn that little Leon is a vegetarian and calls his mother by her first name, and of course the kid shows up with head lice a few weeks later.

Hansen’s debut novel was a surprise bestseller in Germany but will probably find a cooler reception here.

Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-250-10085-6

Page Count: 336

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2016

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.