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RIVER OF THE STICK WAVERS

Name: RIVER OF THE STICK WAVERS
Author: Gillian Andrews
ISBN: 978-1-4602-8935-8

by Gillian Andrews ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 2016

One woman’s valuable and heartfelt journey to the next phase of her life.

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A grieving widow, lost and alone, escapes to a wild terrain in this debut novel.

Sorrow can be a funny thing—just when people think that they have it in check, it sneaks up on them when they least expect it. Such is the case with Grace Irwin. After the unexpected death of her husband, Grace finds herself unmoored. She’s unsure where she belongs, and now that she doesn’t have a spouse or children (they are all grown up) to take care of, she doesn’t know who she is. In search of clarity, Grace heads to northern Ontario’s French River, and each passing day helps her cope. Eventually, she realizes that though she was happy, the life she led with her husband wasn’t the one she set out to have. Through letters and testimonies, she confesses this to him. What could Grace have been if she hadn’t gone along with the societal and patriarchal expectations that she would get married, be a wife and mother, and do nothing else? She can only answer this question as she pushes aside her past, and in doing so, she (and her new friends) finds a quiet strength and plenty of possibilities. Andrews’ work mirrors the stages of grief—in the beginning, the story feels heavy with uncertainty and doubt, but as Grace becomes surer of herself, the tale sheds her regrets. The book’s vibe reflects her healing. Countless novels trace a woman’s exploration, but here that subject rises above a cliché. Grace’s feelings are raw and she’s far from perfect, which makes her odyssey more engaging. Another piece of the narrative frame, Grace’s letters, remains engrossing because she failed to speak these words to her husband because of his pride and her fear. A host of readers should relate to this situation, but the fact that Grace writes her misgivings down as a means of catharsis becomes especially poignant. While she may not have flourished in the way she had hoped, she gets the last word. The author peppers nuggets of wisdom throughout the book, such as “There are no measurements for what’s hard, you know. Hard is hard.” These gems are worth highlighting. Like Grace, many readers are lost in a labyrinth, and it’s with honesty and a few trusted friends that they can move into the future.

One woman’s valuable and heartfelt journey to the next phase of her life.

Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2016

ISBN: 978-1-4602-8935-8

Page Count: -

Publisher: FriesenPress

Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2016

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

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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LAST ORDERS

by Graham Swift ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 5, 1996

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Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.