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Synopsis
Years of caring for her needy family have left Merritt Fowler exhausted and confused, uncertain of who she is or what she wants. When a family argument sends her lovely, fragile daughter, Glynn, running from her Atlanta home to her Aunt Laura in Hollywood, Merritt is compelled to follow.
On impulse, the trio takes off in Laura's red Mustang convertible, barreling up the coast to the lush wilderness outside San Francisco — earthquake country. There, amid the beauty and protection of the mountains, mother, daughter, and sister will struggle to see if the widening fissures between them can be healed, as they search for the bedrock of strength and courage that can save them and their family.
BookList
Like Robert Waller's "Bridges of Madison County" (1992) and Anne Tyler's "Ladder of Years" , Siddons' new novel tells of a self-sacrificing housewife who is tempted to walk away from her old life. It's apparent from the get go, though, that Siddons is working more along the lines of Waller's melodrama than Tyler's wry sendup. Merritt Fowler is exhausted from caring for her elderly mother-in-law, who's suffering from Alzheimer's disease. When a nasty argument compels her fragile 16-year-old daughter, Glynn, to seek refuge with Merritt's glamorous sister in California, Merritt follows, leaving her workaholic husband behind. The three women soon decide to take a trip to the Santa Cruz Mountains for a little R and R. In a remote lodge in the redwoods, Merritt meets and falls for an amateur seismologist, and Glynn is wooed by a Warren Beattylike director. Then an earthquake hits, and as the three women make the long, arduous trek to safety, they reevaluate their lives and goals. There's enough Sturm und Drang in this one to register 8.0 on the Richter scale, and Siddons pumps up every scene with overly lush prose and strangled dialogue: "`Whenever you see redwoods in "National Geographic", or fog, or watch Shamu on TV, you'll be seeing me.'" (Did he say Shamu?) With a red-hot theme, Hollywood glam, a natural disaster, anorexia--everything, in fact, but the kitchen sink--Siddons can't miss. Read it and weep.