Items related to Ella in Bloom
Living in the shadow of her "perfect" older sister and her mother's continuous disapproval, Ella rediscovers her own value when she is reunited with the man who had once been an object of rivalry between her sister and herself.
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Review:
Ella is a perfect Shelby Hearon heroine: sympathetic, harried, vaguely overwhelmed by life. She and her teenage daughter, Birdie, live in Old Metairie, Louisiana, where they struggle to get by on what Ella makes as a plant sitter. Still, the two muddle along cheerfully enough, with mom casually dating a slick real-estate agent and daughter enjoying her budding talent as a cellist. But when her beauty-queen older sister, Terrell, dies, Ella is drawn back into the orbit of her proper Texas family. Long ago she fled her demanding mother and professor father; now, as the surviving, not-quite-good-enough daughter, she finds herself criticized more harshly than ever. The story follows our heroine as she finds love and self-acceptance, which appear hand in hand.
From the Back Cover:
Hearon's books--including Life Estates and Owning Jolene--are odd creations. They jog along at an easy, graceless gait, somehow engendering a powerful sense of good will in the reader as they go. Maybe they succeed because the author is so handy at marrying style and subject. Her characters are haphazard, catch-as-catch-can types, and so is her writing. Sometimes this ease works nicely. Hearon sidles up to emotional nuances and captures them offhandedly, as when Ella remembers fielding a lover's declaration. "I had said, 'Not now,' gazing, like an idiot, at my watch. 'It's too soon or too late or something.'" Elsewhere, however, Hearon lets things get so loosey-goosey that you're not quite sure where she's going. Ella observes one of her clients: "She smiled, a very blond, made-up woman with a lot of energy and general good feeling, who might, in another life, have made a first-class waiter at the Pink Café." Said caf&eacut;e is the fanciest place in Old Metairie, and Hearon has set a scene there, but we're still not exactly sure what she's trying to get across about the character. Still, such loose ends are a small price to pay for a charming, not-too-light read. --Claire Dederer
“Shelby Hearon has outdone herself in her wonderful new novel. She has written a sexy and moving love story, populated with children you admire and grown-ups who try to deserve them. It's about love across the generations as well as between the sheets; and you root for these characters, you cheer them home.
Ella’s story is Shelby in full bloom.”
–Frederick Busch
Ella’s story is Shelby in full bloom.”
–Frederick Busch
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- PublisherThorndike Pr
- Publication date2000
- ISBN 10 0786233028
- ISBN 13 9780786233021
- BindingHardcover
- Number of pages336
- Rating
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Ella in Bloom
Published by
Thorndike Pr
(2001)
ISBN 10: 0786233028
ISBN 13: 9780786233021
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Hardcover
Quantity: 1
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Book Description Hardcover. Condition: Good. 2000. LARGE PRINT. A good ex-library hardcover with typical library markings. An occasional smudge or mark, otherwise clean pages. Minor cover wear. No dust jacket. Booksavers receives donated books and recycles them in a variety of ways. Proceeds benefit the work of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in the U.S. and around the world. Seller Inventory # mon0000261743
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