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PICKING UP THE PIECES

With their lives languishing in as much disrepair as the houses they inhabit, three women—mother, daughter, and granddaughter—find themselves renovating old relationships and making some stunning changes. Once again, Sheepshanks (Facing the Music, 1997, etc.) offers an intelligent, lighthearted romp through that very British terrain of manor houses, titles, and money. Here, the houses, as much protagonists as the characters, are in Yorkshire, where recently widowed Kate Rendlesham, still living in the family home of Longthorpe House, wants to build a new life for herself—which includes finding somewhere else to live. Daughter Joanna Maitland, who adored her father Oliver (she—ll soon learn he was a nasty sadist), is a caterer and culinary columnist. Married to lawyer Mike, she wants to move her family into Kate’s house, but her marriage is in trouble, and she’s not doing well as a mother, either. Fifteen-year-old Harriet, born when Joanna was a student at Oxford, doesn’t get on with her mother (who steadfastly refuses to identify Harriet’s father). The three women, helped and hindered by a marvelous supporting cast, begin to pick up the pieces they’ll need to craft more satisfactory lives. Kate finds and restores a house—a former observatory on the nearby Ravelstoke estate, which has itself just been bought by tycoon Jack Morley; establishes a design business; and finds herself falling in love with Jack. Joanna learns the truth about her father and begins to reconcile with Mike. Harriet, feeling unhappy and unloved, searches for and finally finds her father—where she’d least suspected. Soon enough, houses and hearts alike are mended. A classy comedy of manners that’s also a delightfully witty commentary on those two great passions—the love of humans for each other for and their old homes.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1999

ISBN: 0-312-19997-X

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1998

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

Pub Date: June 15, 1951

ISBN: 0316769177

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951

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MAGIC HOUR

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

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