Even Now

Rating:
Summary: A Vivid, Intriguing Account
Review: Even Now explores the territory of girlhood like none I've ever read. Deftly weaving past into present, Susan Kelly writes lyrically of the awkward adolescent longings we never are rid of - to be accepted, to be loved, to be something to someone. The story is perceptive, suspenseful and loaded with beguiling, humorous and honest detail about the everydays of childhood and marriage. I was swept right along.

Rating:
Summary: It's in there
Review: Even Now takes a hard look at the darker side of female friendships, and the way childhood allegiances and competition and betrayals between girls extend into adulthood. The author states it best when she says "Every woman has a Daintry in their lives." (And if you didn't, you probably were a Daintry.) It's also a story of mother-daughter relationships, and the way predictability and routine work their own kind of devastation in even happy marriages. Kelly is best at bittersweet situations -- wanting what you can't or shouldn't have -- and the details of domestic life.

Rating:
Summary: It's in there
Review: Even Now takes a hard look at the darker side of female friendships, and the way childhood allegiances and competition and betrayals between girls extend into adulthood. The author states it best when she says "Every woman has a Daintry in their lives." (And if you didn't, you probably were a Daintry.) It's also a story of mother-daughter relationships, and the way predictability and routine work their own kind of devastation in even happy marriages. Kelly is best at bittersweet situations -- wanting what you can't or shouldn't have -- and the details of domestic life.

Rating:
Summary: totally mediocre
Review: I don't want to be insulting to people who got something out of this book, even if it was just a few hours' enjoyment... but let's just say, literature it ain't, and it's not trashy enough to be a guilty pleasure. It's just really banal. The cutesy-poo family rules and traditions and nicknames were tiresome and introduced in a heavy-handed way. It was all kind of like a mediocre tv show-- I kept thinking of 7th Heaven meets thirtysomething meets Oprah. Not that I have anything against Oprah, but you know what I mean.

The point is, I was expecting more. I'll read a so-called "women's magazine" if I want tips on incorporating pop-psychology and pseudo spiritual practices into family life, or trite stories about the difficulties of friendships among women-- a subject that deserves much more depth and honesty in its treatment than will be found here. A high schooler imagining adult life could have written this book. Kelly's sentences are ok and her prose isn't stilted or particularly amateurish, but her insights are shallow and tired andher characters have surface quirks but not individuality or complexity. I'm donating this one to the goodwill rather than keep it on my shelf.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing
Review: I found this novel was not as meaningful to me as Kelly's first book, "How Close We Come". I just have so few vivid memories of my younger years that I found it hard to relate to the story line of this new book. But that is my issue and has nothing to do with the book itself.

I found the beginning chapters to be very confusing. References were made to people who had not yet been introduced and I often had no idea whom the author was talking about. I found this most disconcerting and was constantly re-reading to see if I had missed something. I hadn't missed anything, but someone had!

And where WAS Cullen, the town where the women in the book grew up? I was never able to figure that out. Was it north, south, east???

Also, I found the constant flashbacking confusing and awkward. Often it would occur with no warning, no spacing, just abruptly segue into another era from one paragraph to the next. Sometimes there were spaces but most often there were not. On some pages italics were used. I think it was very confusing to not have a standard device as an indicator of a flashback.

There were a lot of mistakes in this book that slipped past an editor. This just should not happen.

Something I ABSOLUTELY ADORED - and have passed along to several friends with children the ages of those in the book - was the rule that a complaint requires that person doing the complaining must express a corresponding "gratitude"...and I loved the idea of reinforcing this rule with a mere hand signal.

Rating:
Summary: Credible Intriguing Characters
Review: The women in Kelly's Even Now are compelling in their complexity. The forgiving and virtuous Hannah who nontheless falls in love with her old friend's husband. The haughty self-possessed Daintry who, in the end, has the most to lose. I found these women believable, the prose precise and beautifully rendered, and the book an overall joy to read.

Rating:
Summary: A Vivid, Intriguing Account
Review: When he accepted the teaching position at a private school, former businessman Hal Marsh and his wife Hannah sell their Durham home. They relocate with their two children to Rural Ridge, North Carolina so he can work in nearby Asheville. At a neighborhood gathering, Hannah meets her childhood friend and heroine Daintry O'Connor, a banker married to an Episcopalian priest. Years ago, Daintry and Hannah had a falling out that destroyed their forever friendship. Daintry cops a rude cold attitude while Hannah at first is a bit more enthusiastic about seeing her old buddy.

Still, in spite of Daintry's nasty aloofness, the move seems perfect for the seventeen years married couple and their son and daughter. Everything changes when Hannah meets Daintry's husband, Peter Whicker. Hannah and Peter are attracted to one another and plan on having an affair. However, Hannah has doubts, not because of the moral issue of spousal fidelity, but because of the memory of what she once had with Daintry.

EVEN NOW is an juxtaposed against adult realities. The story line moves with purpose slowly forward allowing the audience the opportunity to see into the souls of the key characters with an emphasis on the confused Hannah. Readers who enjoy a pleasant look at two women sharing a past, a present, and a questionable future will find Susan S. Kelly's tale a warm reading experience.

Rating:
Summary: intriguing look at the memories of a childhood friendship
Review: When he accepted the teaching position at a private school, former businessman Hal Marsh and his wife Hannah sell their Durham home. They relocate with their two children to Rural Ridge, North Carolina so he can work in nearby Asheville. At a neighborhood gathering, Hannah meets her childhood friend and heroine Daintry O'Connor, a banker married to an Episcopalian priest. Years ago, Daintry and Hannah had a falling out that destroyed their forever friendship. Daintry cops a rude cold attitude while Hannah at first is a bit more enthusiastic about seeing her old buddy.

Still, in spite of Daintry's nasty aloofness, the move seems perfect for the seventeen years married couple and their son and daughter. Everything changes when Hannah meets Daintry's husband, Peter Whicker. Hannah and Peter are attracted to one another and plan on having an affair. However, Hannah has doubts, not because of the moral issue of spousal fidelity, but because of the memory of what she once had with Daintry.

EVEN NOW is an juxtaposed against adult realities. The story line moves with purpose slowly forward allowing the audience the opportunity to see into the souls of the key characters with an emphasis on the confused Hannah. Readers who enjoy a pleasant look at two women sharing a past, a present, and a questionable future will find Susan S. Kelly's tale a warm reading experience.

Rating:
Summary: Read this book!
Review: With astute attention to the details of character, setting and daily life, Susan Kelly illuminates the ordinary. Pondering love, memory, faith,and responsiblity, Kelly transforms the everyday into the quintessential. This is a beautifully rendered story.