Things Unspoken - Hardcover

Sheen, Anitra

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0811823555 ISBN 13: 9780811823555

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 1999

Synopsis

The halcyon days of Los Angeles in the '50s are the seductive setting for this mesmerizing first novel. After her mothers death, four-year-old Jorie grows up with her two slightly older brothers and mostly absent physician father. As narrated with sardonic wit by an adult Jorie, the brothers become increasingly wild, while young Jorie becomes the central force holding the unorthodox household together. Although she treasures the little family time they share-walks in the golden Hollywood hills and dining with Errol Flynn-she gradually discovers that her father has a secret life with very threatening entanglements. As her father self-destructs, the strange-but-stable world she knows begins to unravel, and she enters into taboo sexual relationships that further undermine the family. An intense, vivid novel, Things Unspoken brings humor and insight to the tale of an unforgettable family. Anitra Sheen is an extraordinary new talent.

About this title

About the Author

Anitra Sheen lives near Santa Barbara, California. This is her first novel. Read an interview with the author.

Reviews

Sheen makes a strong debut with this moving, partly autobiographical, bittersweet coming-of-age story set in 50s Los Angeles. When four-year-old Jorie Mackinnons mother dies of polio, she faces an uncertain universe of two older brothers and a detached, impatient physician father. Her father imposes little order, and she and her brothers, though inadequately supervised by an endless series of housekeepers and babysitterssome mean, some inadequate, one an alcoholiclive an untamed life. Insecure about her lone-female status in a family of males, and terrified of losing the love of her remaining parent (emotionally absent as he may be), she learns at an early age the necessity of keeping stoically silent on certain subjects. As she approaches adolescence, however, she realizes that her father is harboring his own secrets. On a rare family trip to Canada, where Dr. MacKinnon was born, she discovers the reason he has been estranged from his own father for many years. Despite brief periods of a seemingly normal domestic environment, she becomes aware that he has another life involving associations with gangsters, parties with Errol Flynn, a first wife in China and liaisons elsewhere, and other dark secrets that threaten the familys already fragile foundation. Relating the narrative from the perspective of an adult Jorie, Sheen achieves the effect of intelligent observation without the threat of preciosity. The novel acquires a quiet, pervasive poignance as it dawns on Jorie that her family is not like other families, that her life is not the stuff of Father Knows Best, and that the absence of a mother can leave a daughter dangerously unmoored. Jories heartbreaking efforts to please a father who refuses to speak of love are affecting and her generous forgiveness of his self-absorption, neglect and fatal addiction provides for a tender, thoughtful ending that is both believably and mercifully uplifting.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

After a lazy, drifting start, Sheens first novel proves to be a modest drama about the slow disintegration of a Los Angeles family through the 1950s and 60s. Narrated by young Jorie MacKinnon, the story opens as her household settles down in the aftermath of her mothers early death. The beginning chapters depict Jories girlhood, her twin brothers, Jimmy and Alex, and their distant, coolly unemotional but loyal father, Dr. Tom MacKinnon. Many of the anecdotes are simply scenes united by conjunctions (Dads away at work too much, the boys are always in trouble) that drift helplessly across the page. The four take a trip to Canada, Dr. MacKinnons boyhood home, where Jories father and grandfather are stiffly reunited and the death of Toms brother is recounted to no particular effect. The MacKinnons acquire a dog, named Sleepwalker for his unfortunate habit of unconsciously terrorizing the neighborhood at night. Alex and Tom are forced to shoot him; the reader presumes this has some traumatic effect on the children, but it is largely unexplored. Things heat up when Jorie discovers that her father has other children by other women, that he sends support payments to them, and that he is somehow connected to the Mob. In the wake of this crisis, Tom has a heart attack, and Jorie, just 15, begins a surprisingly satisfying love affair with his cardiologist. Toms medical practice suffers, and he becomes addicted to morphine. Finally, bad investments in oil wells and chinchilla farms sink the family fortunes, and after Toms death by overdose, Jimmy heads for Viet Nam, Alex leaves to play piano in a group, and Jorie bravely strikes out on her own. The absence of telling observations, an incisive grasp of events, or a notable style robs the story of narrative sparkle: it floats slowly to the readers lap in shades of melancholy blue and indifferent gray. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Jorie, the gritty narrator of this first novel, comes of age in 1950s and 1960s Los Angeles with two older brothers and an increasingly distant father. Though her widowed father hires a string of housekeepers to help raise his children, none of them lasts more than a few monthsAthe children take pride in dispatching them quickly. For most of her childhood, Jorie has no stable mother figure, and as the book unfolds, she realizes that her father cannot give her the love and approval she so terribly craves. But while her childhood is at times unstable, lonely, and painful, it is not altogether unhappy or boring. She helps her father in his medical practice, goes on adventures with her brothers, and eats dinner one evening with Errol Flynn and his daughter. As the book unfolds, however, Jorie learns hard lessons about herself and her family, about when to keep family secrets and when to reveal them, and about being self-reliant and independent. Sheen's writing is clear and unpretentious. Recommended.ALisa S. Nussbaum, Euclid P.L., OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Jorie, a woman looking back on her unconventional childhood, sees mainly family fun and dysfunctions. Like an unblemished piece of rotten fruit, seemingly perfect on the outside but corroding on the inside, the family appears to be happy and carefree, but the widowed father immersed himself in his work, women, and organized crime. Jorie and her brothers grew up independently, three children who lived by the tough maxims of never showing fear, sadness, or love. Their father's promise to "never interfere" created burgeoning adults who never really had a childhood. Jorie's early maturity caused her to seek love in other places besides her family, in situations that she had not been taught were inappropriate or illegal. The gradual disintegration of a family is never pleasant to witness, but the strength of Jorie's character is what makes this novel ultimately readable. Ellie Barta-Moran

Edition details

• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0811823555
• ISBN 13: 9780811823555
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 256