A moving story of a mother’s devotion to her mentally impaired child, inspired by her faith in God.
A young woman with theatrical dreams heads to New York City in the 1950s in this debut Christian novel.
Ann Marie Jernigan grew up in Bonner Valley, Texas. After her graduation from the University of Texas in 1955, she moves to New York to pursue a stage career. She secures a part-time job caring for Sarah Buffington, an elderly woman, in her home. Sarah’s son, Nelson, who employed Ann, is an unlikable man. But Sarah is quite loving toward the caregiver. Through this position, Ann meets Sarah’s grandson Richard and they begin dating, continuing the relationship even when she quits the job to work regularly onstage. After they wed, Sarah cautions Ann that she fears Richard has inherited his father’s worst trait, which she dubs the Buffington Syndrome: “They feel it necessary to control everything and everyone around them, especially their wives and children.” Ann becomes pregnant in 1959 but finds out the child will be born severely neurologically impaired. Richard, never keen on kids, immediately seeks to institutionalize the child rather than have their comfortable life upended, hitting Ann when she pushes to care for the baby. She leaves Richard and eventually moves back to Bonner Valley with her child, Joy. Ann believes Joy is “destined to impact many lives in a way known only by God.” Ann starts over and opens a voice, dance, and theater school, where Joy sits in on classes for the auditory stimulation. Evans acknowledges that Joy’s poignant story was inspired by two family members’ experiences caring for their own impaired children, and the tale skillfully reflects that personal insight into a challenging life. The author’s background as an English teacher also shows in the touching book’s overall quality. Natural dialogue and a fully developed plot arc are deftly executed. The undercurrent of faith that keeps Ann going through a difficult journey will appeal to fans of Christian fiction but is not so strong to dissuade readers with other beliefs.
A moving story of a mother’s devotion to her mentally impaired child, inspired by her faith in God.Pub Date: Nov. 14, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-973637-84-4
Page Count: 322
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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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