The Ragged Way People Fall Out of Love

Traces the effect of the slow disintegration of Molly Hanner's marriage on her and her family

In Stringer's Ridge, N.C., the marriage of William Hanner, architect, and artist Molly is dissolving. Although William precipitates the break and Molly acquiesces passively, both are distressed: "They didn't yet realize the ragged way people fall out of love and how it is never completely done." In her second novel, Cox ( Familiar Ground ) tells us how Molly, in her daily life as mother--of 16-year-old Joe, Franci, who's 12, and Lucas, age 7--both relinquishes love and claims it. With her recently widowed father, Molly looks back at childhood experiences of loving; with her astronomy teacher, she considers loving anew; with her children, and with the sympathetic figure of a local misfit, she is reminded of the vulnerability inherent in attachment. Cox's simple, meticulous prose infuses this domestic tale with a subtle force, but the full effect of her insight is constrained by an flatness in tone and an excess of metaphoric material--Molly's art, lunar eclipse, the disappearance of her son, a fatal fire--that ultimately create distance rather than intimacy. Cox's clear-eyed vision, especially keen when trained on family dramas, remains unique and promising.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

William has loved Molly all his life, it seemed, and they married and had three children--but he doesn't love her anymore. This earnest tale of a marriage unraveling centers on Molly, an artist studying astronomy and discovering lessons about life. There are some splendid moments here (such as Molly taking her terminally ill mother shopping for a burial dress), but the cadence of the prose is sometimes jarred by extraneous details while more telling ones--including Will's reasons for no longer loving Molly--are omitted. Details of the plot also seem too pat: another man in the wings to love Molly, an extended family appearing as the nuclear one is threatened by divorce, a tragedy ending miraculously. Life may be as messy and unfocused as this, but we expect more of art.
- Michele Leber, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.