THE PINK HOUSE

by Nelia Gardner White ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 20, 1949

Last year's No Trumpet Before Him was Miss White's most successful novel and should (though under a different publisher) provide impetus for this. But the closest analogy on type of book is the well-remembered Little Locksmith, by Katharine Butler Hath- away. Here again is the searching story of a crippled girl emerging from the chrysalis of loneliness and differentness, and making a place for herself. Norah, orphaned in childhood, was sent at seven to live in the household of her Aunt Rosa, a strange, complicated family, twisted by Aunt Rosa's abysmal selfishness. Chief sufferer was Paul, the eldest boy, who cared nothing for the devotion of everyone else in contrast to the cruelty, the dislike, of the woman he thought was his mother. Pillar of the household was Aunt Poll, granite New Englander, on the surface- staunch, generous, imaginative under her shell. The girls were like their mother- superficial, thoughtless, pitiless in their indifference to Norah's limitations. And Jed was all boy, eternally young, blunt, insensitive. Little by little, without realizing it, Norah found her place. It was always Aunt Poll who gave the necessary thrust -- taught her to stand alone. And always Paul who counted, though she accepted the fact of her role in his life, -- confidante, friend, but not lover. Just how the years unfolded -- how they brought storm and peace -- makes a story that is an intimate portrait of adolescence and youth, on the outside looking on, and a romance as well....The style seems old-fashioned, studied, oblique, but one gets accustomed to it as the story gathers momentum and the concern of the reader deepens. A woman's book, primarily.

Pub Date: Feb. 20, 1949

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Viking

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1949

Categories: FICTION