Skinner's second novel, which picks up where Old Jim Canaan (1990) leaves off, tells the genuine, tender, and wise tale of young Jim Canaan's family in the voice of his daughter, whose lazy eye encourages a unique vision of the world. Twelve-year-old Molly Flanagan lives in a sort of netherworld. She's overshadowed by her handsome, bright, and talented older brother, Nat, who can play the piano by ear, is a natural-born actor, gets away with swearing in front of his parents, and is confident and at ease with himself. She's pulled in two different directions by family matriarchs: Catholic Grandmother Byrd, on her father's side, believes in filling Molly with ``the great drama and mystery'' of her faith, while her mother's mother, Baptist Grandmother Willie, works to save Molly from a religion ``so bedeviled...[that it's] governed by an Italian posing as Christ on earth.'' She lives in a house where secrets are kept from her. No one reveals that her grandfather committed suicide years ago, that her mother has gotten pregnant, or that she subsequently loses the baby. Even Molly's own eyes mislead her, causing her to see two different things at once (like her physical therapist's shoes, which, Molly notes with interest even as she's supposed to focus on her therapist's nose, always match her outfit). But while Skinner makes it obvious that Molly's never going to be more than a workhorse on the piano, never going to win people over like her brother does, never going to unravel the confusing tapestry of organized religion, she also manages to translate Molly's peculiar vision into a powerful new way of seeing so that this otherwise average girl uncovers potent truths (like her brother's love for a beautiful and abused schoolmate). Of course, when her father finally gathers the funds for an operation to ``correct'' the errant eye, reader's sympathize with Molly's reluctance to give up her special gift. Opulent detail cloaked in whispered prose makes Skinner's tale as subtly artless as Molly's own self-discovery.
Pub Date: March 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-56512-026-4
Page Count: 252
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1994
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
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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