A heartfelt—if at times slow-moving and overlong—picture of a family’s distress.
A semiautobiographical novel about one woman’s long struggle with her divorce and her growing children.
Hart’s debut begins with the protagonist, Kelli (also the author’s first name), arguing with her husband, Guthrie. Guthrie and Kelli have been married almost 22 years and together have six children. They live in a rural place where the scenery is dotted with horses, trucks, and plenty of disagreements. As Kelli develops a serious joint illness, her marriage deteriorates ever further. When the divorce papers are finally filed, it is merely the beginning of a long war waged in and out of court. The reader follows along over the course of the next 10-plus years as Kelli battles for the custody of her children and, as they grow into adults, simply for their love and trust. Kelli faces challenges ranging from mounting legal debts to finding a God-fearing man to be her next husband. She endures a stint in jail. All of those pale, however, in comparison to the occasional searing comments from her children such as, “This divorce is all your fault!” Nevertheless, Kelli holds on to her Christian beliefs and does her best to maintain hope in a story that progresses slowly. Readers get a wealth of information, not all of it necessary, from teachers’ reports to discussions about who is going to visit whom and when. At one point, the book describes a mundane conversation Kelli has with a daughter about her son Aaron: “You told Aaron that you would come here for Easter. Aaron says you’ve changed your mind. Is this true?” Although some of the finer points get lost in the shuffle of this long period of turmoil, events are painted realistically. Anyone who’s experienced a messy divorce can likely relate to the whirlwind of attorneys, social workers, hurt feelings, and supervised visits the book describes. The dialogue can be blunt—a son tells Kelli, “I’m glad you discipline us”—but when tragedy strikes the family, it is vivid. And it is the vividness that keeps the story alive until the very end.
A heartfelt—if at times slow-moving and overlong—picture of a family’s distress.Pub Date: Oct. 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-69846-522-7
Page Count: 595
Publisher: Self
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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