A riveting character study that turns seemingly routine lives into something extraordinary.
In this debut novel, a small group of people in a New England cul-de-sac spend a bleak summer dabbling in deceit, aversion, and sordidness.
Dr. Carla Bishop, a new assistant professor of political science at Yale, moves to Staniford Drive in Dorset, Connecticut. She and her husband, Phil, a lawyer between jobs, are the only blacks in the community. Other cul-de-sac residents include Neil Testa, who has recently lost his father and is essentially a recluse, staying at home either drunk or stoned. Amanda Holbrooke is a homemaker living with her husband, Gavin, a security company owner, and their son, Kyle, who’ll start college in the fall. Seventeen-year-old Ethan Carlisle is infuriated by his new lacrosse position of team manager, which he assumes is due to his last-season flub that cost the team the state championship. Turmoil for everyone slowly creeps in. Phil’s inability to secure employment leads to apparent despondency; Amanda grows weary of Gavin’s incessant financial manipulation; and Ethan frequents Neil’s house to buy whatever booze or drugs the man has. While some community members’ fantasies may spark an extramarital affair, others’ resentments within their households carry over to their neighbors. All of this negativity is bound to explode into hostility—or something violent. Mancuso writes in a straightforward style that meticulously covers the individual narrative perspectives of Carla, Neil, Amanda, and Ethan. The novel offers a tense, anticipatory tale from the beginning, as the very first line specifies that one character is a mere month away from death. From there, the story deftly hints at the seediness bubbling beneath everyone’s lives. For example, Gavin controls Amanda with a biweekly allowance while Carla and Phil endure microaggressions at a neighborhood garden party. But Gavin’s domineering nature seems a precursor to physical abuse, and Amanda believes her husband is racist, even if not overtly. Despite readers’ knowing someone will die and watching certain players, like Neil, spiral downward, both the narrative and the characters are often unpredictable. All of these threads culminate in an uncompromising and unforgettable ending.
A riveting character study that turns seemingly routine lives into something extraordinary.Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-949116-24-3
Page Count: 402
Publisher: Woodhall Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 16, 2020
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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