A thoroughly entertaining rendition of one woman’s search for belonging.
A young woman inherits an apartment from a total stranger and tries to figure out how she is connected to the person who bequeathed it.
Meena Dave lost her parents in a tragic accident when she was a child. Ever since, she’s refused to get close to others, always keeping people at arm’s length. She lives as a nomad, working as a photojournalist and traveling constantly for work. She’s therefore quite puzzled when a lawyer informs her that she has inherited an apartment from a woman she’s never met. The apartment in the Back Bay area of Boston is part of a building called the Engineer’s House, which was purchased decades earlier by an Indian immigrant. Each of the building’s apartments is occupied by other descendants of Indian immigrants, and Meena wonders if she, as a woman with dark skin but unknown background, might have a familial connection to the woman who left her the apartment. After learning she can neither sell nor sublet the home for six months, Meena decides to move in while she tries to uncover the mysteries of her past. She starts building relationships with the other people in the building and also discovers notes inside the apartment that have apparently been left for her to find. The longer she stays, the more connected she feels to the building’s other residents and to her past. Told from Meena’s perspective, the book has a light feeling, but it examines deeper issues like loneliness, abandonment, and cultural expectations. Through Meena’s interactions with her new neighbors, the author explores what constitutes a family and a home. With fascinating details about photojournalism, communal apartment living, and the experiences of Indian nationals who immigrated to Boston in the early 20th century, the novel illustrates the unconventional ways in which people attach to others in unfamiliar surroundings. Although the narrative is sometimes bogged down by unnecessary details, the supporting characters, with intertwined and nuanced histories, add richness to the absorbing story.
A thoroughly entertaining rendition of one woman’s search for belonging.Pub Date: June 1, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-5420-3907-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2022
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
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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