The Angry Woman Suite - Softcover

Fullbright, Lee

Softcover

ISBN 10: 193769853X ISBN 13: 9781937698539

Publisher: Telemachus Press, 2012

Synopsis

More From Kirkus Reviews:

"Raised in a crumbling New England mansion by four women with personalities as split as a cracked mirror, young Francis Grayson has an obsessive need to fix them all. There's his mother, distant and beautiful Magdalene; his disfigured, suffocating Aunt Stella; his odious grandmother; and the bane of his existence, his abusive and delusional Aunt Lothian. For years, Francis plays a tricky game of duck and cover with the women, turning to music to stay sane. He finds a friend and mentor in Aidan Madsen, schoolmaster, local Revolutionary War historian, musician and keeper of the Grayson women's darkest secrets. In a skillful move by Fullbright, those secrets are revealed through the viewpoints of three different people-Aidan, Francis and Francis' stepdaughter, Elyse-adding layers of eloquent complexity to a story as powerful as it is troubling. While Francis realizes his dream of forming his own big band in the 1940s, his success is tempered by the inner monster of his childhood, one that roars to life when he marries Elyse's mother. Elyse becomes her stepfather's favorite target, and her bitterness becomes entwined with a desire to know the real Francis Grayson. For Aidan's part, his involvement with the Grayson family only deepens, and secrets carried for a lifetime begin to coalesce as he seeks to enlighten Francis-and subsequently Elyse-of why the events of so many years ago matter now. The ugliness of deceit, betrayal and resentment permeates the narrative, yet there are shining moments of hope, especially in the relationship between Elyse and her grandfather. Ultimately, as more of the past filters into the present, the question becomes: What is the truth, and whose version of the truth is correct? Fullbright never untangles this conundrum, and it only adds to the richness of this exemplary novel." Kirkus Reviews

About this title

About the Author

Lee Fullbright, recipient of the Theodor S. Geisel Award, Discovery Award, San Diego Book Award, Readers Choice Award, Sister in Crime Award and others, lives in Point Loma, California.

From the Back Cover

Master storyteller Lee Fullbright weaves three unique voices together in her award-winning psychological mystery about consequences. The Angry Woman Suite is a rare and bold novel; a heartbreaking, hopeful marvel.


"They need to be exercised, hearts do ... to keep them strong."

Every family has skeletons, but the Grayson family has more than its share of secrets--and of portraits. Mystery portraits that incite and obscure. Portraits to die for.

An unsolved celebrity double murder in Pennsylvania. A girl looking for autonomy. A young man in search of an identity. An older man's quest for justice.

A plot that pulls and twists.

"A special read ... a very gifted writer, like a seasoned classic composer. So great is the writing, it's worth the read just for that, but then Fullbright brings in story, rich in character, and descriptions that bring you home, with scenes that flow one into the other, even in divergent times, decades apart--and it all works, and works so well that I'm going to read it again and then put Lee Fullbright's The Angry Woman Suite on the shelf along with Maugham's The Razor's Edge and Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath."--Paulette Mahurin, author of The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap

"What Lee Fullbright has put between the covers of The Angry Woman Suite, even if I were to learn how it was done, still would border on literary magic."--Sean Keefer, author of The Trust

Edition details

• Publisher: Telemachus Press
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 193769853X
• ISBN 13: 9781937698539
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 382