A little girl lives with her family in a picturesque seaside community near San Francisco. An American neighborhood like any other, sheltered in the seeming tranquillity of the 1950s. Except it exists on the island of Alcatraz, the Rock, where a looming cellhouse imprisons the most vicious and irredeemable of America's criminals.
Olivia grows up here and watches as her family slowly falls apart, trapped in its own prison rules and silences. She watches the disintegration of her mother, a brilliant woman isolated in a role that closes in on her as inexorably as the metallic crash of any cell door. Olivia can only watch, and retreat into herself, for she's only a little girl; there's no escape for her from the island she calls home.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Tara Ison teaches writing at the U.C.L.A. Writer's Program.
This debut novel presents the story of Alcatraz from the perspective of a prison guard's family in the 1950s. The family lives in what seems like an congenial seaside community, but all sense of innocence is shattered when youngest daughter Olivia accidentally learns of her father's beating a prisoner senseless. In a series of flashbacks, we see the promising life of Olivia's mother, Vivian, dissolve when she marries and is expected to give up her ideas and desires to meet the demands of her husband. Alcatraz is used successfully as a metaphor for Vivian's growing isolation as she slowly loses her identity and is hospitalized. The setting magnifies the oppressive demands placed on women at the time and gives this book an uncommonly heartfelt passion that will incite every reader. Highly recommended for all collections.?David A. Berona, Univ. of New England, Biddeford, Me.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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