Summer of Rescue

Clare Nichols faces a series of crises in her fortieth year--doubts about her husband, attraction towards Nate, a younger man, and uncertain feelings about her daughter's reaching womanhood

The drowning death of five-year-old Michael Nichols in a Minnesota lake is at the heart of this quietly affecting first novel. Eleven years later, his parents, Clare and Paul, and their surviving child, Jeanine, now 15, have moved to Arizona, where Clare is still trying to recover from the tragedy. Nelson seamlessly spins the complicated relationships of Clare's life: with Paul, whose love she tests for the first time with another man; with Jeanine, whose first skirmishes with sex stir up a conflict for Clare between parental disapproval and reminders of her own lively sexuality; and with her parents, back in Minnesota, whom she will visit for the first time in nine years this summer. Her father's unopened letters and memories of Michael's death create the growing tension as the visit nears, finally bringing about a catharsis. Nelson has an inspired ability to reveal the magic in mundane moments, and she manages to wring drama from a refreshingly functional family. If anything, the novel's failing is that it so thoroughly records Clare's average American existence that there is much dull routine amidst the unique wonder. Still, the authenticity of Nelson's voice and the delicate precision with which she wields her powers of observation make this a promising debut.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The characters in this subtle, beautifully crafted first novel are both believable and likable. Nelson has peopled a small Arizona town with complex, well-meaning souls who illustrate the drama of daily life. Clare has agreed to act as musical director for a show celebrating the centennial of Mirage--her aptly named hometown. This stirs up the quiet existence of the 40-year-old wife of Paul and mother of 15-year-old Jeanine, although the summer promises to be an emotional one anyway. Jeanine has her first serious boyfriend, and Clare and Paul watch uncertainly as she lurches toward womanhood. The end of the summer will bring Clare's parents' anniversary party at the same lake cabin where Clare and Paul's son Michael drowned when he was 5. In addition, Nate--the 30-year-old choreographer of the centennial show who has just broken up with his longtime girlfriend--has confided in Clare that he would like to be her lover. When the show's director has a heart attack, Clare and Nate take over together. Their relationship grows closer and more precarious, and several illicit kisses are exchanged. Particularly crystalline are the passages where Clare watches Jeanine maturing and at the same time reminisces about her own early sexual experiences and curiosities, and expresses surprise over her daughter's vast knowledge of intimate matters. When Clare visits the library, hoping to find a book that will help her discuss sex with Jeanine, she recalls that she tried the same thing when her daughter was 10. ``The text was intended to connect with young adolescents, but instead slid down that merciless precipice that leads to the final resting place of the uncool cool.'' Nelson consistently captures the right amount of fear, resignation, and sometimes a tinge of jealousy, in Clare's thoughts. Fine, understated domestic fiction in the best sense. (First serial to Redbook) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

It is the summer of Clare Nichols's 40th year, and her comfortable world is in emotional disarray. Her 15-year-old daughter, Jeanine, has discovered love--and sex. Her parents in Minnesota are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, and Clare doesn't look forward to a reunion with the father she holds responsible for the death, years earlier, of her five-year-old son. And although happily married to Paul, Clare finds herself unwillingly attracted to another, very desirable man. Written in the present tense, this novel has an immediacy and urgency that, combined with the dreamlike sequences recalling the death of Clare's son, compel the reader to plunge ahead. An intelligent and compassionate story of the lively contradictions of family life, this first novel will be excerpted in Redbook. -- M.J. Simmons, Duluth P.L., Minn.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.