The Passion of Estelle Jordan - Softcover

Hebert, Ernest

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140096515 ISBN 13: 9780140096514

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1988

Synopsis

Sometimes the characters in Ernest Hebert’s Darby Chronicles hew close to real life. When the author was a college student pulling shifts part time at a hospital laundry, he worked alongside a woman in her fifties—unadorned, sweet-natured, and with long gray-black hair that was her pride. Nights, Hebert frequented the beer bar in Keene, New Hampshire, where he encountered a sassy, self-empowered, forty-something bleached blonde who could bamboozle any man she met. Borrowing qualities from these women, Hebert would shape one of his most memorable characters: Estelle, the “witch” of the Jordan clan.

A major character in earlier Darby novels A Little More Than Kin and Whisper My Name, Estelle takes center stage in The Passion of Estelle Jordan. Presently she is sliding into late middle age, drawn to two lovers who could not be more different: the widowed farmer Avalon Hillary and a mysterious young punk Estelle calls Trans Am in honor of the car he drives. And there’s a threat, not to Estelle—she can take care of herself—but to Noreen Cook, a younger woman Estelle sees as a version of her own secret, vulnerable self. Putting herself in Noreen’s shoes to save her, Estelle may be in for way more than she bargained for. The Passion of Estelle Jordan, like that of Christ, is rife with sin, suffering, sacrifice, and perhaps redemption.

The Passion of Estelle Jordan is for anyone—male or female—going through a change of life.

About this title

About the Author

ERNEST HEBERT resides in a pleasant town outside Keene, teaches English in the small college town of Hanover, and spends a good deal of time in the imaginary Darby, all three situated in New Hampshire. For more about author Ernest Hebert and the Darby Chronicles go to erniehebert.com.

From Library Journal

The characters in Hebert's fourth novel range from the eccentric to the grotesque, and the brutal plot includes incest, castration, and murder. Sold into prostitution by her own mother, Estelle has persevered to become the matriarch of the Jordan clan (first introduced in The Dogs of March, LJ 4/15/79). Estelle is being stalked by a teenaged psychopath, and after she discovers that he has designs on a younger woman as well, she plots to put herself in her place. In this act of self-sacrifice Estelle suffers rape and a near-fatal stabbing, but she achieves inner peace. Although Hebert's novel is set in New Hampshire, its themes and characters are reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor. Except for Estelle, however, the Jordans may be too mindless to engage the reader's interest. Albert E. Wilhelm, English Dept., Tennessee Technological Univ., Cookeville
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0140096515
• ISBN 13: 9780140096514
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 210