Overview
In this beautifully written novel, Burroway uses a woman’s personal loss, coincident with 9/11, to explore race, territory, and renewal.
Dana, the widow of a Pennsylvania senator, buries her husband the morning of 9/11, only miles from the United 93 crash. After months of paralysis, she sells her house and heads south in an effort to pick up the lost strands of her youth.
Finding that her grandmother’s house is now gone, replaced by a strip mall, she phones an old acquaintance. Cassius Huston is black, separated from a harridan of a wife, and devoted to his three-year-old daughter.Much to their surprise, Cassius and Dana fall in love. But when Dana is threatened by Cassius’s family, she flees to the Gulf Coast, where she finally finds herself, and her life, in a place and culture she never could have anticipated.
Set amid the blur of 9/11, this wise, beautifully written novel of love, race, territory, and renewal explores the issues that challenge us all.
Synopsis
In this beautifully written novel, Burroway uses a woman s personal loss, coincident with 9/11, to explore race, territory, and renewal. Dana, the widow of a Pennsylvania senator, buries her husband the morning of 9/11, only miles from the United 93 crash. After months of paralysis, she sells her house and heads south in an effort to pick up the lost strands of her youth. Finding that her grandmother s house is now gone, replaced by a strip mall, she phones an old acquaintance. Cassius Huston is black, separated from a harridan of a wife, and devoted to his three-year-old daughter. Much to their surprise, Cassius and Dana fall in love. But when Dana is threatened by Cassius s family, she flees to the Gulf Coast, where she finally finds herself, and her life, in a place and culture she never could have anticipated. Set amid the blur of 9/11, this wise, beautifully written novel of love, race, territory, and renewal explores the issues that challenge us all.
Publishers Weekly
Burroway is best known for her textbook, Writing Fiction, but in this novel she demonstrates that even skillful writers can stumble. On September 11, 2001, Dana Cleveland sees a distant column of smoke through the window of the limousine carrying her to her husband's funeral. She'll later learn the smoke was from Flight 93, providing the first of many invocations of 9/11 that serve no purpose other than to undermine what would otherwise be a decent novel. Dana leaves Pennsylvania to revisit her roots, and while searching out her grandmother's home in Georgia, she hooks up with childhood infatuation Cassius Huston, who is black, separated from his wife, has a daughter and belongs to a large family who would not approve of Dana, who is white. When the wife threatens Dana, she flees to Pelican Bay, Fla., where she quickly becomes entrenched in the mostly working-class community and grapples with problems that test her in ways she's never anticipated. The complexities of Dana's and Cassius's relationship and of Pelican Bay are finely wrought, but Burroway's exploration of socioeconomic angst is marred by the novel's ghoulish references to 9/11. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Burroway is best known for her textbook, Writing Fiction, but in this novel she demonstrates that even skillful writers can stumble. On September 11, 2001, Dana Cleveland sees a distant column of smoke through the window of the limousine carrying her to her husband's funeral. She'll later learn the smoke was from Flight 93, providing the first of many invocations of 9/11 that serve no purpose other than to undermine what would otherwise be a decent novel. Dana leaves Pennsylvania to revisit her roots, and while searching out her grandmother's home in Georgia, she hooks up with childhood infatuation Cassius Huston, who is black, separated from his wife, has a daughter and belongs to a large family who would not approve of Dana, who is white. When the wife threatens Dana, she flees to Pelican Bay, Fla., where she quickly becomes entrenched in the mostly working-class community and grapples with problems that test her in ways she's never anticipated. The complexities of Dana's and Cassius's relationship and of Pelican Bay are finely wrought, but Burroway's exploration of socioeconomic angst is marred by the novel's ghoulish references to 9/11. (Mar.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Library Journal
Dana is at a loss after burying her husband, a Pennsylvania senator, a few miles from the United 93 crash on 9/11. Her marriage had almost ended when Graham was diagnosed with cancer, and she nursed him to the end before beginning the task of selling her home. Originally from the South, she heads back to Georgia, aimlessly driving and thinking about her future. She decides to visit her grandmother's house, only to find it has been turned into a strip mall. Once again at loose ends, she looks up old friend Cassius Huston, and they begin an affair, which is problematic because she is white, and he is black. After receiving a vitriolic letter from his ex, Dana moves on, eventually heading west. Little does she realize that this move will lead to a life-changing event. Burroway, the author of Writing Fiction, among the most widely used creative writing texts in the country, crafts memorable characters while challenging readers' assumptions about race, love, and family. For fans of social issues novels.
—Robin Nesbitt