Publishers Weekly
A troubled Canadian family is the focus of this sensitive debut novel about an alcoholic man who wreaks havoc on the lives of his wife and twin daughters. Jane Ingram is the narrator who tells the story as a series of flashbacks, alternating accounts of her childhood experiences with a subplot in which she tries to cope with her traumatic upbringing through a series of children's stories she develops with her lover, Simon, an illustrator. Jane; her twin sister, Eugenie; and their imaginative and somewhat fey mother, Lucy, teeter on the edge of chaos precipitated by the violent outbursts and emotional cruelty of their father, and husband, David. The children are more or less left to themselves as their parents rage against one another. Lucy tries to explain away David's disturbed state of mind as simply a clash of personalities ("what you adore about someone will one day be the thing you try to change"). The couple splits, and their custody battles precipitate a fatal accident which lies at the heart of Jane's present-day disturbance. Interspersed through the novel are the children's stories that Jane concocts to explain her past to Simon (however obliquely); gradually, the tales build a picture of an emotionally fractured personality. Though the subject matter has been addressed many times over, Hartog handles it skillfully. Jane's memories accurately reflect the thoughts and fears of a confused and frightened child, and the plangent tone of sadness is sustained with grace. (Feb.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Jane Ingrams is a teller of tales. Along with her lover, Simon, an illustrator, she creates wonderful fairy tales about a little girl with cobwebs for hair, a girl who is dry as dust and thirsts for water, and a woman who always lies. What Simon doesn't realize is that these tales hold clues to Jane's past. Currently living in Vancouver, Jane once had a twin, Eugenie. Jane's parents, who met at the young age of 12, were always fighting, and, finally, dreaming of becoming an artist, her mother fled to Toronto, where the girls soon followed. Unable to deal with the separation and yearning to have his family together, Jane's father comes to collect them-leading to a life-altering event that will scar them all, especially Jane. Beautifully written, this lyrical novel tells the story of lives never fully realized. The narrative is interspersed with magical tales that teach the reader much about truth, family, and love. Recommended for all fiction collections.-Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH Copyright 2003 Cahners Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Canadian den Hartog follows a twin back to her ruptured childhood in 1980s Ontario, where she suffered the tragic loss of her sister. Eugenie and Jane, who grow up with their frustrated artist-mother Lucy and their angry father in Ontario, are perfect complements of each other: one daring and always laughing, the other cautious and circumspect. Yet by the time the twins are ten, carefree Eugenie has vanished from serious Jane’s life and Jane chaffs to distance herself from the unsettling dynamics of her parents’ rocky marriage. Years later, when Jane is living with her boyfriend, Simon, and writing illustrated fables, she receives a call that Lucy is dying. A poignant, dreamlike account (addressed in the second-person to Eugenia) chronicles her journey back home to make peace with her early years. Interspersed with magical memories of dressing up as Siamese twins for Halloween and visiting their mother in Toronto, where she moved out temporarily to seek a life as an artist, the author offers oddly intrusive fairy tales in discrete chapters, titled after the names of fictional children like "Ildikoh" or "Pirouette," which become allegories inspired by tales the twins’ mother told them as children. Lucy and her husband are locked in a passion that excludes the young girls, provoking the terrible accident that takes Eugenie’s life. Den Hartog spins her tale with a deft hand, coyly dropping foreshadowings of Eugenie’s death and hints of a lethal darkness lying within their father. Jane’s own extreme circumspection has kept her from telling the truth about her past to her lover, who in turn claims to be her Platonic other half. The tale does gain strength through affecting details, though theparents’ blithe resolution (especially when coming after the senseless death of their daughter) feels abrupt and unconvincing, and the reader is never treated to the family reunion on Lucy’s deathbed. A story of quiet beauty that doesn’t require the contrived insertion of fairy tales to enchant. (Later this year MacAdam/Cage will publish den Hartog’s debut novel, Water Wings, which has already appeared in Canada.) Agent: Denise Bukowski/Bukowski Agency
