The stuff of farce, but Baggott’s deft movement of her material is often lyrical and poignant rather that just kooky—and...
A literary sitcom set in New England and New York, covering 15 years in a young woman’s life.
The year she turns 30, Lissy Jablonski, the narrator, is pregnant with a married man’s child; a long-ago sweetheart, Church Fiske, arrives at her New York City apartment; and her father, a gynecologist, dies. These three events trigger Lissy’s reexamination of her past, especially “the summer that never happened,” her 15th year when Lissy’s father ran off to Arizona with a redhead; Lissy’s mother informed her that her father was not her real father; and Lissy met Church Fiske. That was the summer of “girl talk”: the restless nights when Lissy’s mother filled her in on the truth of her own and Lissy’s past. Lissy’s account braids together exploration of that past with confrontations in the present as she attempts to answer a few important questions: How did she get where she is, and what does she do now? That teenaged year was highlighted by a road trip from New Hampshire, where she grew up, to Cape Cod, where she met the aristocratic but effete Fiske family, to Bayonne, New Jersey, where her mother hailed from and where Lissy’s biological grandfather Dino, a midlevel mafioso, still lives. Now, in her 30th year, Lissy faces single motherhood and the disappointment, if not humiliation, of Church’s falling for and marrying the roommate Lissy only recently dispossessed, a Korean stripper named Kitty Hawk. The 15 years between past and present are animated by various experiences with men who represent elements of one father or the other, either the gynecologist or the supermale hunk.
The stuff of farce, but Baggott’s deft movement of her material is often lyrical and poignant rather that just kooky—and Lissy’s consciousness is clearly enough realized so that the end of her tale doesn’t fail to move.Pub Date: Feb. 13, 2001
ISBN: 0-7434-0082-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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