Jeannette Walls has a lot of experience with crazy mothers and in this book she tackles the topic fictionally. When Liz is fifteen and Bean (Jean– aha!) is twelve, their mother ups & leaves. When the “bandersnatchers” (police) turn up at their home, the girls board a Greyhound to the town where their mother grew…
So of course the intention is to prove that separateness is an illusion. Van Booy does this by subtly connecting Martin in Los Angeles in 2010 to Sebastien in France in 1968 to John in France in 1944 to Amelia in Amagansett (just to throw in the fact that this is partially set on Long Island)…
When Lionel Shriver (I love Lionel Shriver!) calls him “big brother,” she means it in both senses of the phrase (older and obese). Little sister Pandora is surprised and horrified when Edison is wheel-chaired off the plane and in the two months he’s a houseguest, his metamorphosis is like the elephant in the room. (The denouement (jeez,…
… and it’s a mystery ’til the very end how & why, after both sacrificed first marriages for this “New View” soul-mate relationship. Make sure you read the included conversation with the author AFTER you read the story.
Who wouldn’t love a 16 year-old girl who loves a “fainting room,” the room at the top of the stairs where tightly-corseted women would repair immediately to catch their breath before continuing their activities? The 16 year-old girl, Ingrid Slade, is suspended from her boarding school for 6 months, including the summer session she was…
Hugh Shipley and Ed Cantowitz meet early in their college careers just as, coincidentally, their daughters do– unbeknownst– many years later. The friendships and families entangle through the years.
“If these walls could speak,” they always say of old, interesting architecture and ruins. This novel is the walls of Ashenden (1775-2010), a huge English estate, speaking its peoples’ stories.
Anthony Capella has written a warm and humorous novel about Italy, love, and food! Buon Appetito
Charlie Manx is no Santa Claus – he “saves” children from unhappy lives and takes them to a twisted world where everyday is Christmas. Vic McQueen is the only child to escape but now Manx has her son. Hill’s imaginative descriptions and suspenseful style really taps into your worst nightmares. Definite creep factor just like…