Synopsis
Katherine Pierson, a sheltered young woman educated in a convent school, marries a man twelve years her senior and must choose between devoting herself to her husband and children, and doing for herself. 30,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo.
Reviews
An assured writer with an appealing, distinctive voice makes her debut with this absorbing and touching novel, which will be compared to Sue Miller's The Good Mother . Goethe writes with lyric intensity, tart humor and serious insight about a woman's life and the difficult choices a mother must make. The product of a small Louisiana town and a sheltered convent education, Katherine Roberts is totally innocent of sex and life when at 19, a college dropout, she is seduced by a professor 12 years her senior. She marries him five weeks later. Three children and refuge in alcohol keep her from acknowledging her husband's philandering until divorce is inevitable. Katherine's precarious existence as a single parent is bracketed by the deaths of her own parents and estrangement from her sister. When a new lover enters her life, immediate and ironic punishment follows, with agonizing repercussions. Irreverent and witty, Katherine is a sympathetic heroine whose maturity reinforces her emerging feminine consciousness. But she is hampered by an enduring guilt about her children, her parents and her need for sexual fulfillment. Goethe has a sure, wry touch with scenes of domestic life, both hilarious and sobering, and her narrative hums with energy and dramatic suspense. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternates.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
A first novel about thirtysomething Katherine, single parent and late bloomer, that breathlessly pushes all the right contemporary buttons--only to reach an uplifting, old-fashioned conclusion. Convent-educated in Louisiana, Katherine had wanted to be a poet so badly that she dropped out of college freshman year and returned to work in her beloved New Orleans. Katherine, a daddy's girl who grew up in a small town along the Mississippi, has been shaped by her Catholic education, especially in her attitude toward sex--which means that when she meets handsome English prof Eric, and they soon make love, marriage is obligatory. A daughter is born shortly thereafter, followed by a son, and soon Katherine-- overwhelmed by motherhood--finds herself drinking more and reading less. A move to North Carolina strains an already rocky marriage; and though there's a third baby, Eric's continued infidelities are too much. Katherine leaves, bravely makes a home for herself and the kids, and starts writing for the local paper. But the children are a problem, though she loves them intensely, and so is sex, for there's still all that lingering Catholic guilt. And despite a few affairs, including one with married Ian (who prefers her without her kids), Katherine's love life remains unsatisfactory. Then, just as her career begins to take off, her father's death and a near- fatal accident involving the youngest child precipitate the inevitable crisis. Tired of being simultaneously mom, lover, and career woman, Katherine hands the kids over to Eric and flees to California with Ian--but in an obligatory epiphany realizes that she has ``never truly dug in for a fight.'' Eventually, she'll head home to reclaim the children and save Louisiana from developers and pollution. Typical of the genre in which every mistake is forgiven if an allegedly strong, talented, and sexy woman finally grows up. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Goethe's first novel concerns a nice, middle-class, Catholic girl and her disillusionment with the Prince Charming myth. In a fairly realistic story that is typical of postfeminist novels of the day, the heroine becomes infatuated with her college professor and gets pregnant. She drops out of boarding school and marries the professor, who lets her stay home and grow miserable while he chases new students. When they both become alcoholics and break up, she must slowly put the pieces of her life back together. This is enjoyable reading notwithstanding, and Goethe writes with style. Yet there is something naggingly familiar about the characters and situations she presents. The novel is recommended for popular fiction collections if only because, given the publisher's high expectations, it is being heavily promoted. Judgment is reserved until we see more of Goethe's work.
- Denise Johnson, Bradley Univ. Lib., Peoria, Ill.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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