THE COMPLEXITIES OF INTIMACY

Name: THE COMPLEXITIES OF INTIMACY
Author: Mary Caponegro
ISBN: 1-56689-120-5

by Mary Caponegro ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2001

Demanding and grim, these tales do provide stimulation—but through analytical channels more than emotional, leaving plenty...

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A handful of loosely linked stories (one long enough to be a novella) displays a smart variety of family dysfunction: Caponegro’s third collection (The Star Café, 1990, etc.) sustains her reputation as a writer with a disturbing, complex vision.

In the opener, “The Daughter’s Lamentation,” a young woman has difficulty understanding her widowed architect father’s attitude toward the family’s summer house on the Finger Lakes; he has now retired there, with her to care for him while her years of ballet training come to naught. But the image of pointe shoes in the freezer seems normal compared to details that emerge in subsequent stories: in “The Father’s Blessing,” for instance, a doddering priest conducts a wedding ceremony, then tries to persuade the newlyweds to break away from their bedroom activities long enough to be measured for coffins. That gaffe pales, however, next to the priest’s role in the family crisis that results when the couple later decide on a home birth for their firstborn: he is drawn into the birthing room by the sight of the mother’s milk-engorged breast, which he has observed through the keyhole. “Epilogue of the Progeny” offers the possibility of children selecting their parents, based on the sales pitches they’re given, then being handed the option weekly to change their minds or consider better offers, a prospect that fills the child-narrator with despair. But the terrible secret harbored by Tom’s sister Nora in the longest piece, “The Son’s Burden,” may be the most unsettling detail of all. In a twist worthy of Will Self, Nora reveals her shame at the end of a grueling New Year’s Eve ritual in which Tom is expected to produce a device that his invention-obsessed, domineering father won’t belittle.

Demanding and grim, these tales do provide stimulation—but through analytical channels more than emotional, leaving plenty of distance for contemplating intimacy’s exigencies.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001

ISBN: 1-56689-120-5

Page Count: 220

Publisher: Coffee House

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.