Love All
A Novel
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
An addictive and moving debut about love, fidelity, sports, and growing up when you least expect it, told through the irresistible voices of three generations
It's the spring of 1994 in Cooperstown, New York, and Joanie Cole, the beloved matriarch of the Obermeyer family, has unexpectedly died in her sleep. Now, for the first time, three generations are living together under one roof and are quickly encroaching on one another's fragile orbits. Eighty-six-year-old Bob Cole is adrift in his daughter's house without his wife. Anne Obermeyer is increasingly suspicious of her husband, Hugh's, late nights and missed dinners, and Hugh, principal of the town's preschool, is terrified that a scandal at school will erupt and devastate his life. Fifteen-year-old tennis-team hopeful Julia is caught in a love triangle with Sam and Carl, her would-be teammates and two best friends, while her brother, Teddy, the star pitcher of Cooperstown High, will soon catch sight of something that will change his family forever.
At the heart of the Obermeyers' present-day tremors is the scandal of The Sex Cure, a thinly veiled roman à clef from the 1960s, which shook the small village of Cooperstown to the core. When Anne discovers a battered copy underneath her parents' old mattress, the Obermeyers cannot escape the family secrets that come rushing to the surface. With its heartbreaking insight into the messy imperfections of family, love, and growing up, Callie Wright's Love All is an irresistible comic story of coming-of-age—at any age.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Three generations of a family in transition are at the center of Wright's touching character-driven tale. Octogenarian grandfather Bob Cole is grieving the death of his wife when his take-charge daughter Anne Obermeyer brings him to live with her family in Cooperstown, N.Y., in the mid '90s. But the Obermeyers have their own problems. Anne's husband, Hugh, the principal of a local preschool, is sleeping with one of his students' mothers. Popular and athletic son Teddy, a high school senior, is terrified of the life looming beyond the safety of his hometown, and 15-year-old daughter Julia is caught in a painful love triangle. And The Sex Cure, a novel that was published in the 1960s a thinly veiled expos of the town's scandalous inhabitants resurfaces, painfully connecting the generations. Wright's greatest asset, her ability to switch voices as family members narrate in turn, is also the novel's greatest weakness, skimming each story without gaining emotional resonance or tying together themes. But the prose is effortless, and the characters are accessible and genuine, making this a promising debut.
Customer Reviews
No conclusion...
I worked my way through the book slowly. Dragging myself a few pages a night, begging the book to excite me, to draw me in. Finally when I started to become a little more invested in the characters and excited about continuing on, all of a sudden the book just ended..... Nothing really worked though, no closure or conclusion, just done.
Trite
Not very original story line. An annoying made up language and a silly sports battle are just a couple of this novel's offenses.