A bittersweet meditation on human connections and the transformative power of friendship.
When a reserved and unassuming man meets a free-spirited young woman, a bond develops that changes both of their lives.
In this debut novel, Henry is an orderly man who rarely deviates from his strict schedule. He lives in a modest home in a quiet neighborhood in Silverton, Connecticut, and works for Haul of Fame Trucking. When he is not tending to his meticulously maintained yard, he visits his elderly mother, who has dementia. Twice a week he goes to Stan’s Deli, where he purchases soup and a dinner roll. One day, he arrives at the deli for his usual order and is surprised to see someone new behind the counter. Chiffon, Stan’s distant cousin, is an idealistic young woman searching for her place in the world. Their initial interactions are cautious but cordial; Henry values certainty, and Chiffon’s moods and style of dress are anything but predictable. Over the course of several months, a friendship gradually develops. Chiffon introduces Henry to new experiences, including riding a bicycle, and he offers his support as she struggles with depression. When Henry and Chiffon face personal crises, they discover how simple acts of kindness can evolve into a deep and meaningful friendship. Holmes’ novel is a gentle and affecting portrait of friendship and the life-changing effects of reaching out and embracing new experiences. Henry and Chiffon are complex and engaging protagonists whose unexpected connection changes them in ways neither could imagine. Their friendship develops slowly, built on small acts of consideration such as Chiffon’s giving Henry a ride home from the deli. Chiffon is unlike anyone Henry has ever met, and the author does a fine job capturing his awkwardness as he tries to relate to her. Chiffon is a compassionate woman who hopes to make a difference by volunteering in her community. Holmes is particularly adept at connecting her protagonists’ experiences with those of a well-developed group of supporting characters. A particularly strong subplot focuses on Henry’s colleague Sylvie, who is inspired by his independence and strives for that in her own life.
A bittersweet meditation on human connections and the transformative power of friendship.Pub Date: July 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5320-4842-5
Page Count: 230
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 5, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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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