I Loved You All - Hardcover

Sharp, Paula

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786862661 ISBN 13: 9780786862665

Publisher: Hyperion, 2000

Synopsis

Marguerite Daigle struggles to survive in a small New York town she considers the edge of nowhere, always holding her family together by a thread. In the summer of 1977, that thread unravels when her older daughter forms a bond with a zealous but well-meaning religious right-to-lifer. A lyrical, funny, and moving portrait of family life, and of the peculiar politics of abortion rights, I Loved You All demonstrates once again that Paula Sharp is a writer of formidable abilities.

About this title

About the Author

Paula Sharp is the author of The Woman Who Was Not All There, The Imposter, and Lost in Jersey City, and a translator of Latin American fiction, including Antonio Skármeta's novel The Insurrection. Her books have won her the Quality Paperback Book Club's New Voice Award, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and the Wisconsin Library Association Banta Award. A graduate of Columbia Law School, she practices criminal law in New York.

Reviews

About midway through Sharp's fourth novel, the eight-year-old narrator, Penny Daigle, does a flip in the air for the "sheer perilous pleasure" of it. The same sensation is elicited in the reading of this exuberant and often hilarious story about growing up in bleak smalltown New York with a restless and loving family. It's 1977, and Penny Daigle, a girl of relentless energy and curiosity, and her uncertain and judgmental sister, 15-year-old Mahalia, must deal with their single mother Marguerite's alcoholism and eventual departure to "The Place," a home in Louisiana for recovering alcoholics. Marguerite's boyfriend, a parole officer at the big state prison in town, and her puckish brother, F.X., a reporter given to dazzling monologues, are going along with Marguerite to keep an eye on her, and so Mahalia and Penny are saddled with straitlaced, pro-life babysitter Isabel Flood. Without taking sides or descending into clich , Sharp (Crows over a Wheatfield) brilliantly navigates the political and religious waters that swirl around the pro-life movement as Isabel seeks to spread her message around town with Mahalia's zealous, and Penny's reluctant, help. On the way, Penny meets a carnival of characters, including Mrs. Fury, who places Penny before a mirror to show her who her worst enemy is, and shy Katie, who, at Penny's urging, stows away in a van headed for Albany. As the town divides over the abortion issue, the dynamics of public dispute are mirrored in the sensitive negotiations of the Daigle family when Marguerite returns to find Mahalia determined to live with Isabel, now totally convinced that abortion is a sin. The narrative moves swiftly from conflict to conflict, buoyed by Sharp's perfect timing and occasionally ecstatic prose that renders water moccasins as "black ink dropped in water" and a truck headlight as "a tilted goblet of gold liquid." (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This time out, Sharp gets as preachy as her pro-life antagonist, in a compelling but decidedly one-sided exploration of the abortion issue.The Daigles are a family of fiery Louisiana Catholics transplanted to the bleak prison town of Stein in upstate New York. In the summer of 1977, it becomes clear that widowed mother Marguerite is losing her battle against the bottle. The more Marguerite drinks, the more her older daughter, teenaged Mahalia, gravitates toward Isabel Flood, neighborhood busybody and humorless antiabortion zealot. Without especially liking Isabel or her ideas, Marguerite nevertheless lets her exert ever-greater influence over Mahalia's life. In fact, when Marguerite goes off with boyfriend David Slattery to dry out, she leaves both Mahalia and pesky eight-year-old Penny in Isabel's care. In one hilarious scene after another, Isabel drags the sisters along on her daily rounds to convert the town's weaker-willed denizens. Little Penny fights her every step of the way, singing dirty versions of "Barnacle Bill The Sailor" at the most inappropriate moments. When Marguerite finally returns home, sober and married, she must fight Isabel for Mahalia's affection. Assisting in this effort is her salty but big-hearted brother, F.X. Molineau. Matters come to a head when Isabel and her fellow right-to-lifers discover that the high school is teaching a poem on abortion called "The Mother." Not only do they picket the school and pass our gruesome pictures of aborted fetuses, they break into the library and pour pig's blood on the free-speech display. Sharp knows how to create wonderfully quirky characters and set them against each other in bizarre situations. But this latest effort shares the central flaw of its predecessor (Crows Over a Wheatfield, 1996): she just can't resist pouring on the ideology. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Sharp!s novel, her fifth book (e.g., Crows Over a Wheat Field), is well worth reading; the author intertwines the themes of family love, alcoholism, abortion, betrayal, and the power of a fanatically held belief. Marguerite Daigle, a widow struggling to raise two daughters in Stein, NY, is drinking too much. When her brother and her fiancE, David, whisk her away for a drying out treatment, 16-year-old Mahalia and eight-year-old Penny are left in the care of Isabel Flood, a local babysitter who is a fanatic right-to-lifer. Penny, the narrator, later recalls the events, including the effect of abortion on the fragile families of Isabel!s church, the near-breakup of the Daigle family when Mahalia wholeheartedly attaches herself to Isabel, and the family reconciliation when Marguerite returns, cured and married to David. Meanwhile, Isabel!s fanatical protests, including the destruction of the high school library, lead to a prison sentence. All these events, as related by a hyperactive child, take on a slightly comic aspect. Although the narrator offers some comments from her adult perspective, the reader is well aware that these issues are still major concerns in our society. Recommended for all public libraries."Cheryl L. Conway, Univ. of Arkansas Lib., Fayetteville
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Marguerite Daigle is a single mother raising two daughters in upstate New York in the 1970s. She is also losing a battle with alcoholism, until her brother, F. X., and fiance, David, intervene and take her to Louisiana for treatment. Her daughters, fifteen-year-old Mahalia and eight-year-old Penny, are left in the care of Isabel Flood, a local baby-sitter and religious antiabortionist. The story is told through the eyes of Penny, who watches as Mahalia gradually falls under the influence of Isabel. Mahalia begins attending church, women's meetings, and even protests with the zealous Isabel. When Marguerite returns, she finds that her older daughter is in danger of becoming as obsessed with the antiabortion cause as Isabel. The title of the novel is taken from a Gwendolyn Brooks poem. The novel starts off slowly but gains momentum halfway through. Wild-child Penny brings energy and humor to this quiet tale of a family struggling to hold itself together. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786862661
• ISBN 13: 9780786862665
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384