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Library | Material Type | Call Number | Child Count | Shelf Location | Status | Item Holds |
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Searching... South | Large Print Item | F COYLE B LP | 1 | Stacks | Searching... Unknown | Searching... Unavailable |
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Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Mix wisdom, compassion, humor, a true gift for pacing and telling a story and the ability to explore a highly charged subject with insight and candor, and you have some of the components Coyle brings to this fully satisfying novel, her second after the highly praised The Kneeling Bus . Set in central Florida, it features a 91-year-old man whose life has been tainted by the racism of the South into which he was born, and who faces his death with a deeply shameful memory still unexorcised. When Tom Glover was a boy, his parents informally adopted an orphaned black youngster named Lucky Apple, from whom Tom became inseparable. When Tom was a teenager, his father ended that relationship in a brutal act that catapulted Lucky out of the family and on his way to a horrible death. The incident turned Glover into the man he became: mean, crotchety, a bully to his late wife and daughter. That daughter, now 69, has moved back home with her gentle husband, Paul, suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Glover impulsively asks two teenagers--one of them black--to escort Paul to fish in the small lake beyond their yard. But to his growing dismay, he realizes that the overt racism of his youth has been supplanted by thinly veiled hypocrisy that covers bigotry with social finesse. His well-intentioned act makes Glover and his family outcasts, and only an act of quiet heroism on Glover's part allows him finally to atone for his past. Coyle's portrayal of the indomitable Glover is beautifully nuanced. She resists the temptation to make him less cantankerous and sharp-tongued and more lovable, yet he earns the reader's respect and understanding. The other characters, too, are portrayed with fidelity to human nature and a tolerance for foibles. Coyle's economical prose can deliver an astringent phrase, an eloquent image and a witty quip all in one sentence. Her telescopic eye and feeling heart mark her as a novelist of mature talent. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
Once again, Coyle (after her fine debut novel, The Kneeling Bus, 1990) plumbs the past--this time within the brittle, corrosive psyche of a 91-year-old Floridian native--to uncover a lifelong secret shame whose racist core is crazily mirrored in a present-day setting of joggers' trim front lawns and smug tolerances. ``Who could have thought the sight of one black kid might ease the conscience of a man living in the past....?'' Ancient Tom Glover--living in his old home with gentle daughter Lois and her husband, Paul, an Alzheimer's patient--was raised by his harsh, proud father to ``boss men and shame the women.'' Now, Glover becomes crafty, scheming as he watches young boys, all from affluent, educated families, fish in the lake. One Halloween he lures in a trio, discards one and hires on two--Ted, the black kid, is the prize--for the daily job of escorting sweetly polite, nearly vacant Paul on local fishing jaunts. It's a gift for Paul--but from Glover's simple act grows a curious swell of neighborhood hostility. It's Glover's visiting great-grandson Petey (he hates the growling old man) who will witness the violence at the lake. Meanwhile, Glover is buffeted by freshly surfaced memories of a terrible betrayal in his boyhood, scorching shames that float up like ``bloated bodies.'' And Lois, driven against her own wall of despair by the death-in-life of a beloved spouse, deals with neighborhood calumny. All the while Petey clings to his secret. But at the close the three connect--and confront the enemy. Early episodes of ugly cruelty argue against the sunset- ending, and the tone is further disturbed by Coyle's faintly hortatory working-through of the two races as separate ``free- floating spheres,'' but her view of the Alzheimer's tragedy is arresting--and heartbreaking. Again, this author reveals her skill in catching the sudden, inexplicable stabs of passion in the troubled voyages of solitary lives.
Booklist Review
Coyle has honed her skills since The Kneeling Bus [BKL F 1 90], her sparkling debut. Her timbre has deepened, and this novel is tender and intriguing throughout. The setting is Point Breeze, Florida, where modern houses have surrounded the old Glover place. Tom Glover, 91 and deaf, has lived there his entire life, and now his 69-year-old daughter has moved back in and they are both attempting to care for her husband, who's stricken with Alzheimer's. Glover notices a group of boys fishing each afternoon on the lake at the edge of his property, a sight that stirs up painful boyhood memories of fishing the very same spot with his black friend, Lucky Apple, in days long before civil rights. Lucky paid for their fun together with his life. These recollections inspire Glover to hire a pair of the boys, one white and one black, to take his muddled but sweet-tempered son-in-law fishing, an innocent undertaking that triggers a virulent outbreak of racism and hostility. Coyle's orchestration of this multitiered drama is tight yet subtle, while her articulation of the disgraceful legacy of racism, the tragedy of Alzheimer's, and the shadow of impending death is both compassionate and frank. ~--Donna Seaman
Library Journal Review
This fine novel does exactly what first-rate fiction should do: As it entertains, it helps us better to understand ourselves and others. While ostensibly telling the story of a 91-year-old Florida man, his daughter, and her husband, who is stricken with Alzheimer's, the book addresses major social concerns--debilitating illness, family relationships, racial conflict, and the chasm between old and young. Though the plot covers a short period in these three lives, we also witness a portion of the older man's youth, when memories of his earlier days force him into a new perspective of the present as well as a more complete perception of the past. Coyle's artistry deserves literary prizes. This meaningful and beautifully written novel is essential for all libraries.-- Dorothy Golden, Georgia Southern Univ., Statesboro (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.