Readers will likely be angered by the arbitrary thwarting of two appealing characters, but the novel’s prose is so gorgeous,...
More strong, thoughtful fiction from Lent (A Peculiar Grace, 2007, etc.) about family ties and the hold of the past on protagonists pondering their direction into the future.
Henry Dorn, 55, has come to Amsterdam in 1922, 18 months after the death of his beloved wife Olivia and troubled son Robert in an automobile accident. His two daughters are grown women with families of their own; he’s mildly estranged from his harsh mother; and his home in Elmira, N.Y., and a summer house in the Finger Lakes district are painful for him without Olivia. There seems no reason not to look for new experiences in Holland, from which his ancestors emigrated centuries ago. On the ride across the Atlantic he meets Lydia Pearce, a sophisticated, slightly younger woman who lives independently on an income from her family’s sawmills. Lent’s skillfully multilayered narrative weaves together the story of Henry and Lydia’s three-month affair in Amsterdam with his memories of his joyful marriage, of bitter conflict with his son after Robert returned from the World War with a morphine habit, of his hardscrabble childhood in a Nova Scotia fishing village, from which he escaped to Brown University and a career teaching at a women’s college. Henry’s ease with strong women is one of the things that attracts Lydia, and she too is the survivor of a great love, though hers was betrayed rather than fulfilled. Both know that a price must be paid for self-knowledge and growth. We follow with moved attention as this seasoned, rueful pair tentatively forges a connection that might bring them together for the rest of their lives—until Lent pulls the rug out from under them in an abrupt conclusion that asserts the baleful role of chance in human destiny.
Readers will likely be angered by the arbitrary thwarting of two appealing characters, but the novel’s prose is so gorgeous, its insights so mature, that they may be willing to accept its dark finale.Pub Date: March 1, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-87113-894-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Atlantic Monthly
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
