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When Every Breath Becomes A Prayer

Name: When Every Breath Becomes A Prayer
Author: Susan Plunket
ISBN: 978-0-9857152-5-0

by Susan Plunket ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 11, 2015

A poorly plotted novel that nonetheless offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of analytical psychology.

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After nearly losing her daughter and having her heart broken by divorce, a 56-year-old Greenwich Village psychologist gains the strength to welcome life’s pleasures—and pains—in this meandering debut novel.

It’s been roughly six years since Georgina’s world exploded. At the time, her then-teenage daughter Kate was suicidal, requiring constant care. And her philandering husband, Colin, had become inexplicably hostile to Kate, a stepchild he had helped raise. Since their split, Georgina has done her best to heed the advice of her friend Emma, who proclaimed: “You can’t lick your wounds forever if you want to be the heroine of your own life.” But Colin’s betrayal still stings. Granted, Kate has found her way out of the darkness; she’s happily married and expecting her first child. And Georgina’s focus has shifted to the present as she searches for ways to help her sister Julia, who was recently diagnosed with cancer. Yet both mother and daughter continue to confront unresolved issues. Kate is working on a graphic novel based on her experiences with depression. Georgina finds her dreams frequently returning to the subject of her ex-husband. As both women seek new beginnings, can they use their past traumas to build a better future? An unfocused narrative undermines Plunket’s attempt to fictionalize the therapeutic journey of self-discovery. Conversations and ruminations about psychological and spiritual theories are intellectually stimulating, but they do little to drive a thin plot forward. Key events seem to be missing from the book. Georgina spends time preparing to talk about her husband’s affair with a writer from Psychology Today, but that storyline is dropped with no indication of whether the interview ran. Likewise, Kate and her husband think long and hard about whether they should attend his mother’s wedding, but after they decide to go, the novel says nothing about the event itself. The omissions point to a larger flaw. While Plunket writes masterfully about the past, she pays too little attention to the day-to-day lives of her characters.

A poorly plotted novel that nonetheless offers a fascinating glimpse into the world of analytical psychology.

Pub Date: Dec. 11, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-9857152-5-0

Page Count: 312

Publisher: Deeper Well Publishing

Review Posted Online: Nov. 23, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.