A Period of Confinement - Softcover

Crone, Moria

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060971088 ISBN 13: 9780060971083

Publisher: Perennial Library, 1987

Synopsis

A Baltimore working-class neighborhood verging on the arty is the background for the tenuous relationship between twenty-seven-year-old Alma Taylor, who has always steered clear of family commitments, and Richard Kaplan, who always keeps his options open

About this title

From Publishers Weekly

There is much to savor in this small, deeply affecting novel, written in the voice of a woman who abandons her baby and husband in a depressed, confused postpartum "period of confinement." The endearing protagonist, Alma Taylor, who has "never stuck to anything" and is unsure of her own identity, explores the blessings and perils of forming attachments while making the difficult, irrevocable transition from daughter to wife and mother. With a keen ear for dialogue and a penchant for descriptions as palpable as the artist Alma's paintings, Crone (The Winnebago Mysteries and Other Stories weaves the bizarre with the mundane, breathing life into Alma's pregnancy and childbirth, her mother-in-law Rachel's death as well as her friend Gina's sex-change operation. Crone's lyric, fluent prose is deceptively artless, her wry humor and lack of sentimentality refreshing. The shimmering tale has a few rough edgesRachel's ambiguous attitude toward Alma needs delineation; the depiction of Jewish life is stereotypicalbut to dwell on them would be quibbling.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Alma Taylor, a Baltimore painter, is pregnant at age 27 by her latest lover, Richard, a young Jewish man. Alma had always shied away from personal commitments, concentrating instead on her art. Loretta and Gina, lovers since high school when Gina was Gino, and Lucas, whose wife Carmen has left him to live with her lesbian lover, are all profoundly affected by Alma's pregnancy, as are Richard's family, the distant college professor and the dying mother, Rachel. It is Rachel who speaks the words that haunt Alma through her confinement: "Love is more mixed than being alone . . . . It is so much trouble, really. But it is sweeter, isn't it." Crone has painted memorable and touching scenes in her first novela very contemporary tale of young people trying to figure out just what they want from life. Recommended. Marion Hanscom, SUNY at Binghamton Lib.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Perennial Library
• Publication date: 1987
• ISBN 10: 0060971088
• ISBN 13: 9780060971083
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 302