A heartwarming slice-of-life tale for readers who enjoy romance and optimistic stories about idealistic communities in...
A debut novel depicts the intertwined narratives of folks brought together by the lure of living in a beautiful old schoolhouse in a tiny Iowa town.
Andrea Hogan, a 58-year-old divorced mother, relocates to the town of Bentley, population 284, for a position at BGM High School teaching ninth-grade English. Retiring from her long career at the Legislative Service Bureau, she decides to finally pursue her dream of teaching. Trish Wilkins, a woman she befriended in college, connects her with the job, as she is also taking a position at BGM. The women each move into separate 600-square-foot, one-bedroom apartments at The Bentley School House, which has been restored and repurposed with the utmost care for historic detail. The building’s owner, Scott “Coach” Samuels, hopes to develop its multipurpose basement into a community center, as “ever since the grocery store closed, there just hasn’t been a decent place for folks to gather.” Andrea quickly learns that one of her new neighbors is the head of the BGM English Department, Richard Daniel Knight, a man she was romantically involved with for a short time in college. Recently divorced, Richard is a transplant from Mons, Belgium, and harbors a deep love of theater. He is overjoyed to reconnect with Andrea, and romantic tension builds between them throughout the story. When a giant tree falls on BGM and crushes the roof of the auditorium, Richard volunteers the cafeteria of The Bentley Schoolhouse to host the fall play. Soon, the tenants, including Oscar and Verna Lee Swenson, an elderly couple who decided to vacate their big farmhouse, rally together to help produce the play. As the engrossing narrative unfolds and the tenants of The Bentley Schoolhouse create community projects using their shared space, their relationships grow and interweave. Major themes explored by Hughes include new beginnings late in life, the benefits of downsizing, the importance of community, and the way like-minded people congregate to create their ideal vision of humanity. The novel is heartening, sometimes too much so, as there is often an absence of conflict to propel the plot. But, as the rekindling of romance between Richard and Andrea progresses, their interactions drive the narrative enough to keep readers engaged and happily turning pages.
A heartwarming slice-of-life tale for readers who enjoy romance and optimistic stories about idealistic communities in America’s heartland.Pub Date: May 24, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5127-3924-4
Page Count: 276
Publisher: Westbow Press
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
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