YOU'LL HEAR ME LAUGHING

by R. L. Gordon ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 25, 1979

A wispy collage of implausibilities about a sweetly (over-sweetly) daffy, pure-spirited mother, and about the ties of devotion that bind a family beyond death. Tim and his parents--famous stage actor Ronald and Amy--have always been very dear to one another, cherishing shared secrets and affectionate pranks. And when Ronald dies, Amy carries on, great in heart and generous deed, serene in the knowledge that ""No one who has loved and been loved every truly dies."" Amy brightens one comer after another. She opens her acres to a noisy camp of Italian orphans (to the dismay of her proper Toronto suburban neighbors); she cossets a slightly daft counterfeit London ""Major"" and his wife, who work to ""preserve the British Empire""; and she oversees the career of the London hotel page to whom Ronald left a whopping legacy (because Ronald himself had been a page once). Meanwhile, bemused and adoring Tim listens to Amy's confessions: her wretched childhood. . . and the news that Tim is really the son of an Egyptian/Italian show girl, a dear friend of Amy's who died shortly after Tim's birth. Finally, Amy is dying, and although she says she will never ""cease to be,"" she arranges a farewell party and disappears forever. However, as she promised, her laugh ""rings out loud and clear"" during Tim's acting debut. A sunny wallow only for the very sentimentally inclined.

Pub Date: April 25, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: T. Y. Crowell

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION