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PEACHY

Name: PEACHY
Author: Fredrica Wagman
ISBN: 0-939149-72-9

by Fredrica Wagman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 19, 1993

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Wagman (Magic Man, Magic Man, 1975, etc.) returns after almost 18 years to limn—in excruciatingly pretentious prose—the midlife crisis of an aging American Princess. As 40-ish Peachy Marvel, having dropped off daughter Ruthie at Harvard for her freshman year, walks down Brattle Street, she notices for the first time that she's become ``invisible.'' Men no longer look at the woman ``who used to make heads spin when [she'd] mosey down any street in Philadelphia''—which is enough of an observation to provoke the crisis that, admittedly, has been brewing for a while but now emerges in full spate. Peachy proceeds to record the fluctuations of this crisis that, begun on Brattle Street, continues in a bookshop where she meets the great writer Manuel Zot; gets into high gear on the Massachusetts Turnpike; and finally peaks at a niece's wedding in suburban Philadelphia. There, Peachy finds happiness, understanding, and a lot of other good things. In addition to the crisis reportage, there's a frenetic monologue—embellished with quotes from Pascal, Flaubert, and other fashionable intellectuals—in which Peachy tells the story of her life: A happy childhood as the adored daughter of her physician father is followed by an uneasy adolescence when her father is less loving; Peachy's voluble mother begins to plot marriage; and Peachy is expelled from high school for a reason so implausible that it can only be to facilitate the next step in her life—marriage at 18 to Alfred. A prosperous fur-broker, Alfred gives his young wife everything she wants; but when the couple's baby is killed in an accident, for which Peachy feels responsible, the two drift apart and Alfred leaves for another woman. But Peachy, bad memories finally exorcised, can now ``forgive so that you can go on loving,'' and move forward. Poor Peachy, poor us, who must endure her pretensions to humor, brilliance, and sympathy. More a lemon than a peach.

Pub Date: Jan. 19, 1993

ISBN: 0-939149-72-9

Page Count: 224

Publisher: Soho

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
HIS SECRET LITTLE WIFE
by Fredrica Wagman

- BOOK REVIEW
MRS. HORNSTIEN
by Fredrica Wagman

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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.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER
by Harper Lee ; edited by Casey Cep

- BOOK REVIEW
GO SET A WATCHMAN
by Harper Lee

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- SEEN & HEARD
NYT Readers Voting on Best Book of Past 125 Years

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).