A page-turning story of a woman’s struggle to overcome abuse and make a new path forward.
In Meade’s (The Summer of the Disco King, 2011) novel, a teacher struggles to flee an abusive relationship while navigating her role at a new school.
Kate Ross is eager to start the year as a sixth-grade teacher at her district’s new middle school. Polished, professional and well-loved by her students, she seems to have it all. But she’s hiding a dark secret: Al, her husband of 10 years, is an abusive alcoholic, and she fears for the safety of both herself and her daughter. As Kate wrestles with her decision about whether to leave Al, life gets more complicated at work when a student is injured when Kate’s on recess duty. Meanwhile, Kate’s “looks and brains” attract the attention of several suitors, including the charming Pete Lange, a school administrator. Kate is equally smitten, but their co-worker relationship and her personal troubles seem to stand in the way of happiness. Meade, a former teacher, finds drama in the seemingly mundane details of middle school life—the stress an instructor feels when being evaluated, the delicate matter of dealing with an irate parent, the personality clashes between teachers. Though the stage occasionally seems crowded with minor players, Westmore Middle School is populated by an amusing cast of characters, and their foibles add levity to an otherwise serious story. But the heart of this novel involves Kate’s evolution from battered housewife to empowered single woman. It’s an emotionally resonant story, and Kate’s fear and anxiety are palpable as she moves gingerly around her husband, doing anything she can do to avoid provoking his wrath. Meade sprinkles her narrative with some tense action scenes—e.g., a threatening, late-night phone call from Al that causes Kate to flee her apartment in terror—that will keep readers on edge. Through her relatable, vivacious protagonist, Meade offers a window into the deep struggles of an abuse victim, with Kate first desperately hoping that Al will change, then finally realizing that “she could not continue to live under the same roof with him, not for any reason.”
A page-turning story of a woman’s struggle to overcome abuse and make a new path forward.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-938883-48-4
Page Count: 279
Publisher: Maine Authors Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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