An observant familial portrait bogged down by extraneous detail and a frustratingly circuitous plot.
A deep dive into the dysfunction of an extended family.
In her first novel, de Andrade (Memories of Lili, 2014) follows the travails of Michelle, a Montréal woman whose contented life begins to disintegrate when her brother, Joe—who lives across the street from Michelle’s nuclear family—hires a young nanny to help care for his children. Before long, the nanny, Ermelita, nicknamed “Lita,” stirs up conflict in his fraught marriage and attempts to turn his children against their mother. Despite Michelle’s efforts to keep the peace, Lita’s manipulative power plays and Joe’s callous indifference result in complex turmoil involving Michelle’s extended family. What follows is a crushing litany of decadeslong strife, which de Andrade spares no detail in describing. Readers experience every ordeal, from recurring fights over the logistics of celebrations (“The following Saturday, Claudia would be with her mother, so Lita chose Friday for Michelle to prepare the combined birthday dinner”) to the minutiae of Joe’s custody battles. Michelle also unearths long-buried memories of her childhood with Joe, and her struggles to process these traumas in light of the family’s ongoing discord provide the story’s most compelling conflicts. Although it goes against her tendency to accommodate others’ wishes, Michelle slowly comes to view Joe’s family as the “little sect” of the book’s title: a brainwashed cult built around Lita’s dangerous desire for control. The author’s devotion to documenting every facet of the family’s life makes for an odd reading experience; many of their troubles are repetitive and seem to serve little narrative purpose. Such a lack of progress may mirror the frustrations of real-life families, but it also prevents the story from developing much momentum. The author’s reliance on detached description over action or dialogue further robs Michelle’s story of tension. In particular, she paints the characters’ emotions and motivations in broad strokes that keep them from coming fully alive: “Joe’s provocative ways always led to an altercation with Mother and ended in a heated dispute.” Still, Michelle’s story remains a striking reflection of the dark side of family dynamics—hardly entertaining but vivid nonetheless.
An observant familial portrait bogged down by extraneous detail and a frustratingly circuitous plot.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4602-7563-4
Page Count: 276
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
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