A poignant take on grief and perseverance.
A woman must face her fear of loss in Summers’ (The Suite Life, 2019, etc.) bittersweet modern romance.
Abby Carson is still reeling from the sudden death of her beloved husband, Isaac, which occurred nearly a year ago. Depressed and uninspired, she isolates herself in her New York City apartment in an effort to shut out the world. Unsurprisingly, her professional life as a writer quickly begins to crumble, due to a lack of ideas. To make things worse, she finds out that she’ll soon have to move out of her place because she can’t afford a new co-op buy-in in her apartment building. Abby decides to do something drastic; she sells her apartment and moves to a little town in Nova Scotia, where she buys a small house in the country. It soon becomes clear, however, that any ideas of remaining a hermit are out of the question; her neighbors seem intent on becoming best friends despite her attempts to avoid them. To her surprise, as a handyman works on her new place, Abby finds herself slowly warming up to her new community. Things take an interesting turn when romance appears where Abby least expects it. But will she be able to love again after suffering such a tragic loss? Whip-smart, sarcastic, and self-effacing, Abby is delightful as a disillusioned romantic afraid of heartache. It’s hard not to chuckle at some of her observations on love: “This is why I prefer cats. They don’t make you feel things you don’t want to feel. Humiliation. Rejection. Longing.” However, there are also strong narrative threads about dealing with trauma and overcoming adversity that make the main character seem realistically vulnerable. Summers shows readers, through Abby’s choices and actions, how trauma and loss affect many aspects of her protagonist’s daily existence. This makes the story particularly relatable for those who’ve experienced similar emotional challenges. The plot develops gradually, so there’s plenty of time to slow down and savor the journey.
A poignant take on grief and perseverance.Pub Date: Dec. 23, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-988891-27-9
Page Count: 318
Publisher: Gretz Corp
Review Posted Online: Feb. 11, 2020
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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