The 12th novel by the former journalist and Washington insider whose savvy analyses of power politics and related human imbroglios include Stringer (1974) and The American Ambassador (1987). The mansion the title denotes is both home and showplace for three generations of the Behl family, Washington power brokers whose careers are enhanced and personal lives compromised by their talents for working behind the scenes and keeping secrets. In the 1930s, Senator Adolph Behl is seemingly promised, then denied, a vice-presidential nomination. His son Axel, made craftier by observing his father's misfortune, carries for most of his life the burdens of grievous injury and romantic fixation experienced in wartime, and ``[operating] quietly as a fixer without portfolio'' so successfully that he's later credited with having ``won the Cold War singlehanded.'' Axel's son Alec, who inherits his father's amorous insatiability and political acumen, becomes a skillful lawyer known among the city's ``Visibles'' and ``Venerables'' as ``The Man to See in Washington.'' Just (Ambition and Love, 1994, etc.) adroitly records and entwines these men's fates with those of fictional and real politicos (Adlai Stevenson makes a memorable brief appearance) and fills his brimming novel with dozens of witty revelations of how government, business, and society really function. His characters tend to speak in near-aphorisms (good ones), and this can prove wearing—but only when Just allows them to explain themselves at self-indulgent length. They are all nonetheless vividly realized, especially Axel's first wife (and nemesis) Sylvia, a gifted poet and resilient survivor whose combative relationships with her husband and son echo, so to speak, both Ford's Parade's End and Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy. An entertaining, intelligent novel that combines the juiciness of a John O'Hara beach-blanket read with the suave assurances of Louis Auchincloss at his most acute. One of Just's best books. (Author tour)
Pub Date: May 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-385-85697-3
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1997
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters...
Female rivalry is again the main preoccupation of Hannah’s latest Pacific Northwest sob saga (Firefly Lane, 2008, etc.).
At Water’s Edge, the family seat overlooking Hood Canal, Vivi Ann, youngest and prettiest of the Grey sisters and a champion horsewoman, has persuaded embittered patriarch Henry to turn the tumbledown ranch into a Western-style equestrian arena. Eldest sister Winona, a respected lawyer in the nearby village of Oyster Shores, hires taciturn ranch hand Dallas Raintree, a half-Native American. Middle sister Aurora, stay-at-home mother of twins, languishes in a dull marriage. Winona, overweight since adolescence, envies Vivi, whose looks get her everything she wants, especially men. Indeed, Winona’s childhood crush Luke recently proposed to Vivi. Despite Aurora’s urging (her principal role is as sisterly referee), Winona won’t tell Vivi she loves Luke. Yearning for Dallas, Vivi stands up Luke to fall into bed with the enigmatic, tattooed cowboy. Winona snitches to Luke: engagement off. Vivi marries Dallas over Henry’s objections. The love-match triumphs, and Dallas, though scarred by child abuse, is an exemplary father to son Noah. One Christmas Eve, the town floozy is raped and murdered. An eyewitness and forensic evidence incriminate Dallas. Winona refuses to represent him, consigning him to the inept services of a public defender. After a guilty verdict, he’s sentenced to life without parole. A decade later, Winona has reached an uneasy truce with Vivi, who’s still pining for Dallas. Noah is a sullen teen, Aurora a brittle but resigned divorcée. Noah learns about the Seattle Innocence Project. Could modern DNA testing methods exonerate Dallas? Will Aunt Winona redeem herself by reopening the case? The outcome, while predictable, is achieved with more suspense and less sentimental histrionics than usual for Hannah.
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters and understanding of family dynamics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-36410-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.
Passion, friendship, heartbreak, and forgiveness ring true in Lovering's debut, the tale of a young woman's obsession with a man who's "good at being charming."
Long Island native Lucy Albright, starts her freshman year at Baird College in Southern California, intending to study English and journalism and become a travel writer. Stephen DeMarco, an upperclassman, is a political science major who plans to become a lawyer. Soon after they meet, Lucy tells Stephen an intensely personal story about the Unforgivable Thing, a betrayal that turned Lucy against her mother. Stephen pretends to listen to Lucy's painful disclosure, but all his thoughts are about her exposed black bra strap and her nipples pressing against her thin cotton T-shirt. It doesn't take Lucy long to realize Stephen's a "manipulative jerk" and she is "beyond pathetic" in her desire for him, but their lives are now intertwined. Their story takes seven years to unfold, but it's a fast-paced ride through hookups, breakups, and infidelities fueled by alcohol and cocaine and with oodles of sizzling sexual tension. "Lucy was an itch, a song stuck in your head or a movie you need to rewatch or a food you suddenly crave," Stephen says in one of his point-of-view chapters, which alternate with Lucy's. The ending is perfect, as Lucy figures out the dark secret Stephen has kept hidden and learns the difference between lustful addiction and mature love.
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6964-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
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