Overview
Southern California in the 1950s. Polly Winter has left the Midwest and her strict Christian Scientist upbringing to raise her daughter Cory differently, with the warmth and tenderness she never received. But by the time Cory is ten, Polly has disappeared from her life, leaving Cory, her brother and her father to navigate their lives alone. Twenty-five years later, accountant and amateur watercolorist Cory struggles to come to terms with memories of the childhood she has carefully locked away. A slowly developing relationship with a woman she meets in her painting class, Rosemary Reardon, helps Cory rediscover the joy of her past as well as its sorrows. As her memories bring new light to her life, Cory finds both a passage through her losses and a greater understanding of what family is and can be.Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
Cory, the protagonist of this well-meaning novel has written a well-meaning novel herself, one that she looks back on years later, relieved that it remained unpublished. This novel lacks the imaginary one's mushy sentimentality, but it too relies on overly familiar circumstances (recovered memories of incest here, coming out as a lesbian in the novel-within-the-novel) that drag it down. Of greater interest is Cory's childhood in California in the 1950s. Wilson creates a winsome child's view of a family that occasionally veers into overripe perfection (Cory's childhood games with her brother Kevin lack even a hint of meanness) and her Christian Scientist mother is sweetness incarnate. But there are affecting moments, such as Cory's confused refusal to be vaccinated in elementary school. After her mother's death from treatable cancer, the story jumps ahead several years to find Cory an emotionally cold, 35-year-old lesbian accountant living in Seattle. She resists the overtures of Rosemary, who doggedly pursues her, until the two finally stumble into a relationship, although Cory remains uncommitted. Early on, Wilson indicates that Cory was abused by an uncle, and much of the narrative is spent waiting for Cory to deal with it. She eventually does so through therapy and the help of friendsa resolution that may be realisitic but isn't terribly dramatic. (Sept.)Library Journal
In this bittersweet coming-of-age novel, Cory Winter has a pretty ordinary childhood, until her mother, Polly, goes against her faith by having a doctor examine a lump in her breast. Polly dies when Cory is ten. The loss tears apart the familyCory is sent to live with neighbors and separated from her brother, Kevin. Cory remains very much an outsider, bottling up pain, grief, and memories of incest at the hands of an alcoholic uncle. Cory turns to alcohol herself, is compulsive about her work, and has a string of short-term relationships with women. Then she meets Rosemary, who encourages her to come to terms with her buried emotions. Wilson (Trouble in Transylvania, LJ 10/1/93) leaves a few important questions unanswered here, the dialog has a stiff and awkward feel to it, and even though the characters and situations seem credible, somehow the portrayals of some key figures seem sketchy and unfinished. Recommended for larger fiction collections.Lisa S. Nussbaum, Euclid P.L., OhioKirkus Reviews
From mystery writer Wilson (Trouble in Transylvania, 1993, etc.), a pretentiously lyrical story of healing and recovery—one that pushes all the usual buttons as a woman recollects the long- buried losses and traumas of childhood.In her 30s, Cory Winter, a successful CPA and amateur painter, with Rosemary, a new lover, at her side, should be on top of the world. She isn't. Living in Seattle, she feels alienated, happier alone, and unable to respond to the abundant affection Rosemary offers. Cory recalls her seemingly happy childhood in southern California in the 1950's, with Polly, her mother, who created a flower-filled garden and taught Cory how to draw; West, a dependable father; and a cute little brother, Kevin. But gardens have a long history of harboring with their perfection the agents of their destruction, and the Winters' garden is no different. Polly Winter was raised as a Christian Scientist by her strict midwestern mother, and though she escaped to California, she could not free herself from either her mother or her faith. Which means that when she finds a lump in her breast, she tries to heal it with prayer, undergoing surgery, at West's insistence, only when it's too late. Intimidated by her mother's presence, Polly also failed to notice her brother Steve's abusive behavior to Cory on visits to them. When Polly became ill and died, Cory's childhood and life as part of a close-knit family ended. Her father moved them to an apartment, withdrawing into himself, and as soon as she was old enough Cory left. Years later, therapy, confessions to her brother, and a visit rich in epiphany to England enable her finally to put her past behind her and move on, with Rosemary at her side.
Wilson's self-absorbed protagonist with her tiresome, politically correct lover and blighted family irritates more than she engages. Not this author's best.