A profound analysis of complicated family dynamics that should appeal to caregivers seeking inspiration and solace in their...
A debut novel depicts the plights of four troubled siblings brought together by the tragic onset of their mother’s Alzheimer’s disease.
Elizabeth Miller is the youngest of her siblings, a child of divorce, and the apple of her mother’s eye. At the age of 34, she begins to notice an unusual change in her mother’s behavior and personality. While not especially close to either of her two sisters, Teri and Jessica, or her brother, Tom, she brings her siblings together to discuss her concerns. They agree that their mother, Janice, is clearly becoming more forgetful, repetitive, and hostile but hesitate to jump to any conclusions, blaming it on the natural aging process. But as Janice’s condition steadily worsens over the next few years, and as her children slowly begin to accept the terrifying problem at hand, their cooperation becomes crucial. Compelled to work in their mother’s best interest under extreme stress, the siblings see the ugliness of internalized family drama and long suppressed emotions surface. As Janice slips away into a vegetative state, Elizabeth learns a family secret that forces her to re-evaluate her mother’s character, shaking her to the core. Wheeler’s gripping novel is ambitious in the way it tackles the heavy subject matter of losing a parent to Alzheimer’s disease. At the center of the narrative is the obvious tragedy: the slow, merciless death of Janice and the horror her children endure as they watch their mother’s mind deteriorate. But another layer of complexity is added to the saga through the family’s back story, giving the reader insight into why Elizabeth, Teri, Jessica, Tom, and Janice act the way they do. The author details Janice’s difficult upbringing during the Great Depression in Nebraska, giving depth to the quality of her perseverance and will to survive. Wheeler also addresses the damaging effects of divorce on young children and proposes that no family is broken up into black-and-white “good” and “bad” members, a fact that Elizabeth finds particularly difficult to accept when she learns her mother’s long-kept secret.
A profound analysis of complicated family dynamics that should appeal to caregivers seeking inspiration and solace in their own lives.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9965555-3-1
Page Count: 310
Publisher: Attunement Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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