A portentous debut, but this winner of the Commonwealth Best First Novel Award is proof of a literary talent with more to...
A doomed loved story played out against the planned destruction of an English rural community.
This first novel by British author Hall (her Booker-shortlisted The Electric Michelangelo was published in the US in 2005) uses a real episode—the building of the Haweswater dam in Westmorland in the 1930s—as the foundation for a two-pronged elemental tragedy. The book itself is an ode to the Lakeland in the UK, its fells, gray stone walls and people, and many of its pages are devoted to descriptions of place, season, occupation and weather—especially rain. Heartbreak hangs in the air from the moment the village of Mardale learns of its imminent annihilation, the result of the Manchester City Waterworks building a vast dam and drowning the whole valley. Devout Ella Lightburn and her stoic husband, World War I veteran Samuel, are typical of the stolid local tenant farmers shortly to be dispossessed of home and livelihood, although their children—headstrong, feline Jan and water-obsessed Isaac—have something otherworldly about them. Fiery Jan will fall intensely for the overseer of the dam project, Jack Liggett, “a man she is required to hate above all others.” When he falls and dies while hiking, with her left behind pregnant, she turns demented, tearing at herself in despair, eventually committing suicide with stolen explosives. Isaac grows up to be a diver and elects to drown in the reservoir. Hall paints her scenes in dark, symbolic, sometimes overwrought prose, straining for mythic overtones. Her desperate love story, occasionally reminiscent of Wuthering Heights, staggers under the tragic load heaped upon it; the sad dispersal of the village and its traditional way of life is more affecting.
A portentous debut, but this winner of the Commonwealth Best First Novel Award is proof of a literary talent with more to come.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-081725-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Perennial/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2006
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of...
Hoover’s (November 9, 2015, etc.) latest tackles the difficult subject of domestic violence with romantic tenderness and emotional heft.
At first glance, the couple is edgy but cute: Lily Bloom runs a flower shop for people who hate flowers; Ryle Kincaid is a surgeon who says he never wants to get married or have kids. They meet on a rooftop in Boston on the night Ryle loses a patient and Lily attends her abusive father’s funeral. The provocative opening takes a dark turn when Lily receives a warning about Ryle’s intentions from his sister, who becomes Lily’s employee and close friend. Lily swears she’ll never end up in another abusive home, but when Ryle starts to show all the same warning signs that her mother ignored, Lily learns just how hard it is to say goodbye. When Ryle is not in the throes of a jealous rage, his redeeming qualities return, and Lily can justify his behavior: “I think we needed what happened on the stairwell to happen so that I would know his past and we’d be able to work on it together,” she tells herself. Lily marries Ryle hoping the good will outweigh the bad, and the mother-daughter dynamics evolve beautifully as Lily reflects on her childhood with fresh eyes. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Despite the better option right in front of her, an unexpected complication forces Lily to cut ties with Atlas, confront Ryle, and try to end the cycle of abuse before it’s too late. The relationships are portrayed with compassion and honesty, and the author’s note at the end that explains Hoover’s personal connection to the subject matter is a must-read.
Packed with riveting drama and painful truths, this book powerfully illustrates the devastation of abuse—and the strength of the survivors.Pub Date: Aug. 2, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-1036-8
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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