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DEGREES OF DIFFICULTY

Name: DEGREES OF DIFFICULTY
Author: Julie E. Justicz
ISBN: 978-1-944388-74-4

by Julie E. Justicz ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2019

A stunning, heartfelt, and poignant debut.

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Caring for a profoundly disabled child 24/7 is both exhausting and tension-producing for every member of a family. Worse, the lack of affordable and readily available social supports all too often puts the burden of care on the child’s siblings and parents.

For dad Perry Novotny, a successful Atlanta homebuilder, his wife, Caroline Clissold, a Shakespeare scholar and Emory professor, and their two older kids, Ivy and Hugo, the challenge of rearing their youngest, Ben, a nonverbal boy with an IQ of 32, has left almost everyone frayed and close to despair. But not Hugo. As the oldest son, he seems to enjoy engaging with his kid brother. In fact, Hugo stays by Ben’s side whenever possible, soothing him during and after his near-constant grand mal seizures, interpreting the varying meanings of his sole word, "Guh," and generally keeping him entertained. After Ben is booted from his umpteenth group home—Ben bites, scratches, and hits, unaware of his capacity to cause serious physical injury to others—teenage Hugo makes Ben his project. Others in the family know that this is not a good plan, but, somehow, they allow it to unfold. For their part, Ivy withdraws into schoolwork while Caroline withdraws into scholarly research and soothes her nerves with drugs and alcohol. Perry, meanwhile, tries to keep a smile on his face no matter what. The tensions are palpable, and an inevitable crisis looms over much of the novel. When it occurs, it packs a punch and provides an incandescent spotlight on how few resources exist for families like the Novotny-Clissolds. The novel is heartbreaking and enraging, even chilling, as it exposes, in straightforward and never-maudlin terms, the stresses and strains of providing constant care to someone who will never be independent. Different coping styles are also beautifully explicated, without judgment.

A stunning, heartfelt, and poignant debut.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2019

ISBN: 978-1-944388-74-4

Page Count: 300

Publisher: Fomite

Review Posted Online: July 14, 2019

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2019

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- PERSPECTIVES
Beyond the Behemoths: In 2019, Small Presses Are Publishing Some of the Best Fiction Out There

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.