From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Tucker's outstanding novel (after
Shout Down the Moon) is as structurally dextrous as it is emotionally satisfying, boasting a chorus of extraordinary voices and assured parallel plot lines separated by four decades. In the present day, 23-year-old Dorothea has left her overprotective father's secluded 35-acre New Mexico estate, called the Sanctuary, where she and her brother, Jimmy, had been sheltered from current news and all modern-day innovations. Searching for her runaway brother in St. Louis, Dorothea meets a recently widowed doctor-turned-cabbie, who introduces her to the vibrant outside world he's been trying to escape. A parallel tale set in the 1970s follows the budding romance between a successful film director and the waif who becomes his muse, his wife and the object of his obsessive control. The tour de force resolution that ties both stories together is a lyrically poignant reminder of the necessity of hope. An exceptionally empathetic storyteller, Tucker has created a haunting, gripping novel that brims with graceful writing and fragile characters. This should be catnip for book clubs, whether they devour it as a page-turner about parenting and family or discuss its subtle meditations on fate and coincidence, wealth and poverty, freedom and safety, fairy tales and American dreams.
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With skill and empathy, Joyce Bean narrates the strange, compelling story of Jim and Dorothea, children raised in complete isolation from television, school, people, and computers. As young adults, they have little memory of their luxurious childhood in Hollywood. Now they live at "The Sanctuary," a thirty-five-acre ranch in New Mexico, which has become a locked haven since a home invasion left their mother near death. Bean's portrayal of their mother's painful recovery and her addiction to prescription drugs is realistic. With her versatile voice range, Bean's portrayal of Dorothea's frightened cries during the invasion is chilling. Her depiction of Jim's fear in the psychiatric ward is realistic. This one won't disappoint. G.D.W. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine--
Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine
--This text refers to the
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edition.
