Promises - Hardcover

Plain, Belva

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385311109 ISBN 13: 9780385311106

Publisher: Delacorte Press, 1996

Synopsis

From the bestselling author of The  Carousel and Daybreak  comes a stirring, timely story of adultery and its  impact on the American  family.

Margaret and Adam Crane seem to have a near perfect  life--she's a teacher, he's a computer executive, and  together they are lovingly raising their own  children and Margaret's orphaned niece. Then one day  the phone rings--and suddenly everything changes  forever as a woman from Adam's university days  reappears in his life, and an old affair re-ignites. At  the same time, there are problems in Adam's  workplace--a possible takeover and downsizing. The  reverberations from these two circumstances will touch  many lives and bring with them changes that no one  could have predicted.

In  Promises, Belva Plain--as only she can  do--depicts the fraying fabric of family life in  the wake of extramarital affairs, while at the same  time celebrating the importance of strong and  nurturing family values. Dramatic, compelling, and  always exciting, Belva Plain's storytelling talents  confirm her standing as the foremost chronicler of  family life today.

About this title

About the Author

Belva Plain lives in northern New Jersey. She is the author of the bestselling novels Evergreen, Random Winds, Eden Burning, Crescent City, The Golden Cup, Tapestry, Blessings, Harvest, Treasures, Whispers, Daybreak, The Carousel, Promises, Secrecy, Homecoming, Legacy of Silence, and Fortune's Hand.


From the Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

tselling author of The  Carousel and Daybreak  comes a stirring, timely story of adultery and its  impact on the American  family.

Margaret and Adam Crane seem to have a near perfect  life--she's a teacher, he's a computer executive, and  together they are lovingly raising their own  children and Margaret's orphaned niece. Then one day  the phone rings--and suddenly everything changes  forever as a woman from Adam's university days  reappears in his life, and an old affair re-ignites. At  the same time, there are problems in Adam's  workplace--a possible takeover and downsizing. The  reverberations from these two circumstances will touch  many lives and bring with them changes that no one  could have predicted.

In  Promises, Belva Plain--as only she can  do--depicts the

Reviews

Family values and feminism make an uneasy marriage in this undisguised morality play about adultery. Fifteen years ago, Margaret Crane gave up the dream of medical school to devote herself to her husband, Adam, an engineer. Beautiful, loyal, savvy in bed, cheerful in pregnancy and tirelessly sensitive in motherhood, Margaret now unknowingly loses her husband to the crude and grasping Randi Bunting, who enjoyed an intense affair with Adam back in college and has appeared in their small Midwestern town. Meanwhile, Margaret's beloved cousin Nina falls for another married man. Margaret's moralizing provokes a schism between the two women. If Plain (The Carousel) had shaped the cousins' conflict as a loving one between sense and sensibility, with each sister learning from the other, this novel might have come to life. But only Nina has to grow?into the realization that every act of adultery has a victim, the betrayed spouse. Margaret remains unchanged by the tumultuous events in the story, including a death; she comes off not as a human being but as a collection of unshakable beliefs. Still, Plain conveys well the hurt and bewilderment of the three Crane children. And she understands, and makes palpable, those times when the illusion of control collapses. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club main selections.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

What could be more venerable, time-encrusted, and useful to a popular novelist like Plain (The Carousel, 1995, etc.) than a drama about a destructive diddling with the Seventh Commandment? Here we have the Noble Wife, mother of three Marvelous Children, and the Errant Husband, bent on adultery, heeding a call to the wild side. If her guardian angel had been on the job in 1973 when Margaret was being fitted for her wedding gown, wondering why fianc‚ Adam had been so distant lately (``If Adam ever leaves me. . . I shall die''), she would have encouraged Margaret to continue her medical studies, cancel the dress, and send Adam packing. But marriage ensued, and now, in 1988, the Adam Cranes have three nice kids. Margaret teaches school. And Adam (in computers) is about to be whistled to heel by Randi, the siren he was having an affair with while Margaret was preparing for their wedding. Randi, long absent, has moved into town. In spite of her rejection of him years before (for a live-in with more money), Adam is once again drawn to Randi and her ``magic flesh.'' When he touches her ``a thrill of peril shook through him. . . He needed this woman.'' The truth dawns slowly on Margaret and her brood. Standing by, meanwhile, are kind friends and one aging suitor, but in the wake of the marriage's collapse she is faced with having to sell the family house and even give up the family dog. Love and doubt turn to righteous rage, and the divorce proceedings are begun, via a likable (unmarried) lawyer. Margaret, having regrouped, is recouping. But what of Adam? Will he get his? You bet. The message couldn't be Plain-er--woe to promise-breakers--and the characters couldn't be broader. Color Margaret virtuous gold, Randi (a moniker on target) a flaming red, and Adam, lizard green. A heavy clunker that Plain manages to move along. Not her best. (Literary Guild main selection; author tour) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

For 19 years, Margaret Crane lived the perfect life: faithful wife, loving mother, respected teacher. Then her husband, Adam, shatters their marriage when he leaves her for another woman. At the same time, Margaret copes with the knowledge that her niece Nina is one of these "other" women and is involved in an affair with a married man in New York. As she struggles to reweave the torn threads of her life as well as her children's lives through therapy and divorce proceedings, another tragedy damages the fragile web she has constructed. Margaret must find the strength within herself to mend her broken family and face the future. In the destruction of a family as a result of an extramarital affair, Plain creates an emotionally compelling novel sure to appear on the best-seller lists, as did her previous novels, Whispers (1993) and The Carousel , which dealt with similar themes. A selection of the Literary Club and the Doubleday Book Club, and with an author tour planned, Plain's newest book is a must purchase for all public libraries. Melanie Duncan

Plain's (The Carousel, Delacorte, 1995) latest tale of middle-class family upheaval tells of a quintessentially happy suburban clan that is shattered when the father embarks on an extramarital affair.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Turn," said Isabella, with pins between her lips.

In the pier glass, looking down, Margaret could watch careful fingers working over a cascade of white silk.  Looking up, she saw her own disheveled, curly red head and her shoulders rising in unfamiliar nakedness over an intricately tucked and pleated frill.

Margaret's mother sighed.  "I don't know how you do it, Isabella."

"Sewing is recreation for me, Jean.  And to make a wedding dress for my own daughter-in-law, whom I knew before she was born--how many people can have a pleasure like that?"

Affection shone from Isabella's eyes.  They were opalescent and wide set, like her son's.  Like Adam she was erect and dignified.  But where she was talkative, he was silent.  His intelligent face with its even, symmetrical features was somber, a somber, romantic face.  Mysterious.  Heroic.  Margaret had fallen in love with it when she was fifteen years old.

If Adam ever leaves me, she thought suddenly, I shall die.

He had last telephoned on Monday, just after she had come home for spring break.  Before that he had not called since the previous Thursday.  But they had always talked to each other every evening after eight.  They would talk just under three minutes, yet it seemed, although two states lay between his university and her college, as if he had his arms around her.

When had it begun to change?  Or had it really changed?  After all, he was on the final stretch of the hard road toward his degree.  So perhaps she was only imagining things.  A word unspoken, a glance evaded, a telephone call missed--if you were looking for signs, you could find them, couldn't you?  You could always force something out of nothing, merely because you were too sensitive.  Yes, that was it.  She was too sensitive.

And she looked around at the familiar room as if its very familiarity might reassure her.  An extraordinary warmth was here.  It came from the house itself, this solid Victorian, built by her great-grandfather and meant to last, complete with front porch and wooden gingerbread, on this broad midwestern street.  It came from the two women, both plain, kind, and unexceptional, who had known widowhood since the Korean War, had each worked and reared a child alone.  It came from the cheerful shrills of children playing in the yard below.

From where she was standing, Margaret could see the group playing some ancient circle-game, with Nina in the center, taking charge.  At six she was the neighborhood leader.  Such a delightful, demanding person she was, Jean's little orphaned niece!

Adam used to joke: "After we're married, people who don't know us well will think that she's really ours, that we'd had her hidden away."

"Are they all right down there?" Jean asked.  "I always worry when she's out of my sight."

"You worry too much, Mom.  Nina's going to make her way in the world.  With that pert little face and all that energy, she's going to be a charmer and a winner.  Anyway, you know very well that when she's in my charge, I keep her safe." And Margaret had to laugh.  "I don't let her get away with too much, you can be sure."

"You'll be a fine mother," Isabella said as she got up from her knees.

"'Fine mother'!" Jean laughed.  "Oh, yes, of course, but she's got quite a few things to do first.  Graduate from college in May, then Adam will graduate, and then the wedding June twentieth--you know, I've forgotten to give the date to the photographer!  Good Lord, I'll go phone right now!"

"Wait," said Margaret.  "I--we're not exactly sure about the date."

Two startled, high-pitched voices chimed.  "What do you mean?"

Struggling out of the confining silk, Margaret felt suddenly exposed and very vulnerable.

"We thought--Adam said--he thought maybe we have too many things all crowded together.  All these dates.  Maybe he should have a little time to buy stuff for himself--"

Isabella interrupted.  "Buy stuff!  All he needs to get ready is a new suit. And knowing how little he cares about clothes, I'll have to argue him into buying that."

As thoughts that had been forced down now rose to the surface, all the good warmth ebbed from the room.

"Well, it's not only that.  Maybe, when you think about it, maybe he really should have some more time, a couple of weeks to get used to the new job.  A little time."

"And you had to wait until April to think about all that?" Jean said, with some exasperation.

The two older women were properly alarmed.  Without looking Margaret knew they were questioning, glancing toward each other.  How they wanted this marriage! It was safe.  Each was to get a dependable in-law.  There were no dangerous unknown quantities.  She understood.

"Why, he never said anything like that to me!" exclaimed Isabella.

"Well, we weren't sure.  It just crossed our minds.  Just a thought.  Anyway, we'll have to decide this week one way or the other."  They were examining her. It felt as though cold air were blowing on her body.  She slid into her jeans and buttoned her shirt, saying lightly, hurriedly, "Goodness, it's no problem! There's no big difference between June and July, is there?  But we'll let you know.  Definitely.  This week.  Positively."

Isabella, the more easily appeased, hung the wedding dress into a plastic bag. "Okay, as long as you do.  It won't take long for me to finish this skirt," she said cheerfully.  "I'll have to come back once more to get the hem right, that's all."

As soon as they were alone, Jean asked the expected question.  "What is it, Margaret? Is there any trouble?"

"No.  What could there be?"

"Because if there is, I can't go off and leave you."

"Because of this little business of changing the date?"

"If that's all it is."

"That's all it is."

A pair of her familiar vertical worry lines appeared between Jean's eyes.  "I sometimes think I shouldn't be going, anyway.  India.  It's crazy."

"Since that's where the consular service is sending Henry, it's where you have to go.  What's the fuss?"

"Maybe it's crazy for me to think of marriage anyway, after all this time being a widow."

"All the more reason, Mom."

Jean looked weary.  It was as if her years of work in the library had worn her as it wore books, graying the once-bright surface.  She had had so little time to love her husband and be loved.  Day after day there had been only the routine of work and the care of a child.  Sadness and pity touched Margaret. Sometimes it almost seemed to her that their positions were reversed, that Jean was the daughter and she the mother.

"You know, Mom," she said firmly, "Henry's a good man, and you're very lucky. I'm glad for you.  Stop thinking about me.  I'll be fine.  I can manage things."

"Yes, yes, I know you're strong.  But I'm leaving you with the responsibility of Nina.  Starting a marriage with a six-year-old child to care for simply doesn't seem right."

"It's quite right.  I love her, and Adam doesn't mind having her at all."

"Yes, he's a prince, he really is.  But you're a princess, Margaret, beautiful and good.  Sometimes I think you're too good."

"Spoken like a mother!  Now, do you mind?  I've still got reading to do and finals coming up around the corner."

The late-afternoon sun was watery, and the old scraggly lilac was still winter bare.  In her chair at the window Margaret looked out at the well-known landscape, letting her troubled and restless mind wander.

She thought how amazing it was that she had been born into this house and that now, Mom having given it to her, she might possibly even die here.  It would not be in this room, though, but in the large one across the hall, the one with the massive dark bed and the wardrobe that, when she was a child, had seemed to loom above her like some dark giant.

She thought about her early dreams, the allure of medicine, her vision of herself in an operating theater, or maybe on a hospital ship bringing modern miracles to remote places.

"You can be anything you want to be," her advisors told her.  "You have an aptitude for many things."

But as she grew older during these last years at college, it became clear that choices would have to be made.  Adam was the elder, the one who was now prepared to move from the study hall into the real world.  And he had made a truly giant step.  A Phi Beta Kappa student in college and now certain to receive his graduate degree with honors, he had already been engaged to work right here in Elmsford at Advanced Data Systems, one of the busiest computer companies in the state.  It promised a glowing future.  Now, since the state university was more than two hundred miles away, medical school for Margaret became an impossibility.

The...

Edition details

• Publisher: Delacorte Press
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385311109
• ISBN 13: 9780385311106
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 375