An incisive, warm take on juggling the realities of home, work, and income.
A widow living in her run-down Kansas City childhood home contemplates her next moves.
Marianne is at a conference in San Francisco when Sharon, her Baltimore-based boss, gives her a heads up: HR will soon inform her of a department-wide layoff, and she’ll lose her telecommuting data job. She recently (and reluctantly) moved back to Kansas City, Missouri, from California following the loss of her husband, who died from “a long and expensive illness that left me able to afford only this wretched little house in this wretched neighborhood.” As Marianne looks for new jobs and collects severance and unemployment, she also works part time at the local hardware store, with its owner and sons helping her fix up her house and her ideas spurring store sales. She continues to work at the store even after Sharon sets her up with a contract position at a Chicago startup, which is partly remote but requires some on-site visits. By the novel’s end, Marianne experiences an incident near her home that forces a decision about whether she should move to Chicago for a full-time position or take a technology support job at the local school system for half the salary. California-based Barker, whose previous book was East of Troost (2022), has once again set a novel in the changing Kansas City region that she hails from with a lead who sometimes feels out of place. While it’s a bit puzzling that Marianne bought this house in this area, given that her parents “moved away in the mid-1970s,” Barker has crafted a relatable, weary modern worker in Marianne, who’s full of wry observances. (“All I’ve done so far is determine that I want to make a living by sitting on my butt at home.”)
Pub Date: June 11, 2024
ISBN: 9781647426804
Page Count: 296
Publisher: She Writes Press
Review Posted Online: Jan. 5, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life that manages to be both poignant and funny.
A recently divorced writer juggles a chaotic full house, a struggling career, and a confusing romantic life.
Lila Kennedy thought she had the perfect family—a loving mother, a doting stepfather, two wonderful daughters, and a great husband. She even wrote a self-help book about repairing a marriage, which was published a mere two weeks before her husband left her. After her own mother’s sudden death, Lila finds herself an unexpected single mom with her health-nut stepfather, Bill, for a roommate. When her long-absent actor father, Gene, moves in, things go from crowded to chaotic. When Gene isn’t talking about his memories of starring on a Star Trek–like television show, he’s starting fights with Bill. Perhaps the worst part is that Lila’s supposed to produce a new book about the unexpected direction her life has taken. She quickly finds that writing about her real-life romantic exploits (including the kind gardener Bill hired and the sexy single dad she lusts after at school pick-up) and the actual heartbreak that upended her family is easier said than done. Moyes creates a world that is believable and funny. It’s hilarious to read about the distinct characters in Lila’s life—such as her lentil-loving stepfather and egocentric biological father—interacting with each other. There’s plenty of drama here, but none of it feels forced. It all comes from flawed people doing their best to coexist and making plenty of mistakes along the way. Moyes combines the warmth of an Annabel Monaghan rom-com with the humanity of a Catherine Newman novel, creating a story that will provoke tears and laughter.
A moving, realistic look at one woman’s post-divorce family life that manages to be both poignant and funny.Pub Date: Feb. 11, 2025
ISBN: 9781984879325
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 9, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2024
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
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