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GOING THROUGH THE CHANGE

STORIES

Working in the tradition of Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner, the author of Dark of the Moon (not reviewed) finds her own, surprisingly fresh perspective. In these 14 stories, Daugharty illuminates changes in the lives of rural folk in the deep South, portraying with wise insight an array of skillfully drawn characters. They include a pistol- packing, fast-thinking single mama who defends her teenage daughters against rape (``Dogs in a Pack''); an elderly babysitter who discovers God has made her responsible for the infants in her charge (``Looking to Miss Sara''); a drained father who finally stands up to his game-playing daughter, who is ``without conscience and incapable of caring'' (``Nightshade''); a black seventh grader who learns about the ``power in silence'' when he is picked against his will to integrate a neighboring all-white school (``Making Beliefs''); and a ``white trash'' girl, expelled from school because of her mixed ancestry, who realizes her father hasn't burned down the courthouse to avenge her ``but to suit hisself'' (``Living Lessons''). These are not pretty stories about pretty people—as one woman says, ``Pretty don't count when you're going through the change''—but the possibility of redemption lies within each of them; ``framed against the heart of the sky, angel faces reeled in carousel colors of pewter and pink.'' The plots deftly unfold as we learn about the characters, whose personalities and motivations are always clear. Daugharty's considered, creative use of language is often astounding and enlightening. Sometimes, however, she treats too casually incidents on which relationships or their disintegration hinge, as when the father in ``Nightshade'' only briefly mentions his manipulative daughter's jilted black lover, whom he and his wife tended and buried after he died of a heroin overdose. Often grim, though not without periodic comic relief, Daugharty's pieces explore the vast range and complexity of human experience with fearlessness, honesty, and compassion.

Pub Date: Sept. 12, 1994

ISBN: 0-86538-081-3

Page Count: 200

Publisher: Ontario Review

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1994

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

Pub Date: June 15, 1951

ISBN: 0316769177

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951

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MAGIC HOUR

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

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