An illuminating fictional glimpse into the experiences of Lithuanian nationals in the turbulent 20th century.
A tale of love and infidelity stretches from early 1900s Europe to postwar America.
When readers first meet Aurelia, the main character in the framing device of Norvaisa’s debut novel, she’s a housewife torn between two men: Albert, her husband of 12 years (and the father of her children), and Sam, a handsome, longtime friend with whom she has an impulsive affair. When Lia confesses the liaison to her husband, he is hurt and furious, and in an attempt to distance their family from the whole subject, he accepts a promotion that involves relocating to Rochester, New York. Once there, they buy a dilapidated vineyard, and while Lia is pondering her new life, Norvaisa broadens her narrative by looking back in time, bringing the reader to 1900 Lithuania and the world of the farm worked by Lia’s parents. That essentially peaceful existence is upended in 1914 when the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian assassin catapults the whole of Europe into the conflict that would become World War I. By the fall of 1915, the German army has occupied Lithuania and begun requisitioning land, livestock, and manpower—creating a nightmare situation Lia’s clan decides to flee. The family members take their chances by making the long and complicated trip to America, where they find themselves aliens in a strange new land. It’s in this historical section—the majority of the book—that readers see Lia grow up, meet Sam, fall in love, and gradually become the woman they encounter in the novel’s opening pages. Unfortunately, the two narrative strands don’t combine especially effectively. Norvaisa’s prose, although leaning a bit too heavily on clichés, is smooth and readable throughout. But she’s far more skillful—and seems more interested—in bringing Lia’s family history alive, as opposed to the heroine’s present-day marital problems, her relationship with her children, and her involvement with the vineyard. Lia remains an appealingly frustrating character throughout, evenhandedly portrayed as the source of many of her own problems.
An illuminating fictional glimpse into the experiences of Lithuanian nationals in the turbulent 20th century.Pub Date: Jan. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-60047-828-4
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Wasteland Press
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2017
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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