While undeniably formulaic, Genova’s latest is one of her strongest—more internalized, sometimes slow, but an eloquent and...
“Demoralized, pathetic, emasculated, dying”—such is the state of a classical pianist afflicted by a fast-moving, incurable disease. But it’s not the end of the story, rather the beginning of a parallel journey, in neuroscientist Genova’s (Inside the O’Briens, 2015, etc.) fifth work of fiction.
Having made her reputation with novels about Huntington’s disease, autism, and, most famously, Alzheimer’s—Still Alice (2009), which was turned into a movie with Julianne Moore—Genova now turns to the merciless degenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The unsuspecting sufferer is Richard Evans, a renowned musician for whom the irretrievable loss of muscle control begins with paralysis in his arms, denying him both the joy and life’s purpose of playing music. But as important as Richard’s career is, it’s his emotional life to which the larger part of the book is devoted, specifically his failed marriage to Polish immigrant (and equally talented pianist) Karina, his distant relationship with his daughter, Grace, and his unresolved feelings toward his father, who never valued Richard’s gift. While charting Richard’s physical decline with her customary and precise mustering of medical symptoms, facts, treatments, and equipment, Genova appears equally interested in exploring the psychological ramifications of Richard’s prognosis. In the limited time remaining to him, Richard and Karina need to find a way to apologize and forgive each other for their individual failings in the marriage; Grace needs to understand her father’s regrets about his inadequate parenting; and Richard must come to terms with the damage his own father inflicted. Thus the novel has contrapuntal themes—the body’s decline matched with a different struggle, toward psychic reconciliation for Richard, and Karina too.
While undeniably formulaic, Genova’s latest is one of her strongest—more internalized, sometimes slow, but an eloquent and touching imagining of how a peaceful terminal place might be reached.Pub Date: April 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4767-1780-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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
Simmering with tension, this tragic, albeit imperfect, mystery is sure to keep readers inching off their seats.
A forsaken family bound by grief still struggles to pick up the pieces 12 years after their mother’s death.
When famous author Gil Coleman sees “his dead wife standing on the pavement below” from a bookshop window in a small town on the southern coast of England, he follows her, but to no avail, and takes a near-fatal fall off a walkway on the beach. As soon as they hear word of his accident, Gil’s grown daughters, Nan and Flora, drop everything and return to their seaside family home in Spanish Green. Though her father’s health is dire, Flora, Gil’s youngest, can’t help but be consumed by the thought that her mother, Ingrid—who went missing and presumably drowned (though the body was never found) off the coast more than a decade ago—could be alive, wandering the streets of their town. British author Fuller’s second novel (Our Endless Numbered Days, 2015) is nimbly told from two alternating perspectives: Flora’s, as she re-evaluates the loose ends of her mother’s ambiguous disappearance; and Ingrid’s, through a series of candid letters she writes, but never delivers, to Gil in the month leading up to the day she vanishes. The most compelling parts of this novel unfold in Ingrid’s letters, in which she chronicles the dissolution of her 16-year marriage to Gil, beginning when they first meet in 1976: Gil is her alluring professor, they engage in a furtive love affair, and fall into a hasty union precipitated by an unexpected pregnancy; Gil gains literary fame, and Ingrid is left to tackle motherhood alone (including two miscarriages); and it all bitterly culminates in the discovery of an irrevocable betrayal. Unbeknownst to Gil and his daughters, these letters remain hidden, neglected, in troves of books throughout the house, and the truth lies seductively within reach. Fuller’s tale is eloquent, harrowing, and raw, but it’s often muddled by tired, cloying dialogue. And whereas Ingrid shines as a protagonist at large, the supporting characters are lacking in depth.
Simmering with tension, this tragic, albeit imperfect, mystery is sure to keep readers inching off their seats.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-941040-51-5
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Tin House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 4, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2016
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