Synopsis
When Vickie returns home to celebrate her grandmother Ruth's eightieth birthday, all of the clan, with one aching exception, will be there. Missing will be Vickie's mother, Lydia, killed by a train a year ago while crossing the railroad tracks. Since then, one question has haunted Vickie: Did her mother take her own life? As the preparations for the party proceed, tensions mount. Vickie takes up again with her erstwhile lover, whom the family has always regarded as "unsuitable." Uncle Warren announces that his wife is leaving him. And old hostilities flare between Vickie and her older sister, Meryl, who is harboring a secret that will deeply affect them both. At the height of the festivities, the enigma of Lydia, which has been expressly avoided by all, can't help but surface - and with greater consequences than anyone could have imagined. Vickie finally is pushed to reconsider her ties to those she loves, especially her mother.
Publishers Weekly
In this emotionally acute novel, Tyler (Blue Glass) questions whether family members ever truly know one another. It has been a year since Lydia, wife of an unambitious lawyer and mother of two adult daughters, was killed at a railroad crossing in her small Massachusetts town. Only her 27-year-old daughter Vickie, visiting to celebrate grandmother Ruth's 80th birthday, dares suggest that Lydia might have committed suicide. While others call the death an accident, Vickie demands a truth of which she can never be certain. Tyler sure-handedly maps the interrelationships between Lydia's survivors: Vickie, who strove to break free of her mother, then lost her completely; elder daughter Meryl, who envies Vickie's single status and fears for her own rebellious children; neighbor Gail, who shared an intimate friendship and possibly a love affair with Lydia; and brother Warren, criticized for not attending his sibling's funeral. Petty arguments break out, but days pass before the principals acknowledge their true emotions-any or all of them could have contributed to Lydia's grief. Tyler's drama, loaded with screenplay-friendly dialogue, proceeds smartly and stingingly. Lydia's absence is tangible, and her family is lopsided without her: ``It's just this kinetic energy this family has, like we're one big imploding star,'' Meryl observes. The characters do not learn whether Lydia took her own life, but as they search their memories, Tyler deftly taps their sense of regret. (Mar.)