Throwing Roses

"When Branda Raggan nearly dies in a car accident, her mother does everything possible to help the 17 year old cope with her injuries. She sends her daughter off for a visit organized by Special Assistance Holidays, but Branda runs away after arriving. Rescued by a 6'5" middle-aged transvestite with a heart of gold, Branda begins to appreciate life again ... A deeply felt first novel, with lyrical writing throughout". -- Publishers Weekly

When Branda Raggan nearly dies in a car accident, her mother Margaret, a larger-than-life saloon-keeper and former country-western singer, does everything possible to help the 17-year-old cope with her head and knee injuries. Branda manages to survive pain, depression and Margaret's smothering attentions, but she succumbs to renewed despondency after she leaves the hospital and returns to her home above a Milwaukee bar. Margaret spends her savings to send her daughter to London for a six-week visit organized by Special Assistance Holidays ("special trips for people who need a little more help"), but Branda runs away from the group shortly after arriving. Rescued by Lady Sabrina, a 65 middle-aged transvestite with a heart of gold, Branda begins to appreciate life again. She helps out around the house, visits the cabaret where Lady Sabrina performs, moves among her mentor's gay and lesbian friends and learns what it means to love and to forgive. This deeply felt first novel works best when it examines the difficult mother-daughter relationship; the chapters about Lady Sabrina and homosexual experimentation seem slightly unreal in comparison. Nonetheless, Ridley offers nicely lyric writing throughout and some beautifully evoked moments of anger, depression and pain.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

After receiving a head injury in a serious car accident, 17- year-old Branda Raggan develops an appreciation of damaged and disfigured people everywhere--and eventually finds love among them- -in a small, scope-less first novel from Wisconsin writer Ridley. When Branda awakes in a Milwaukee hospital bed ``with holes in [her] mind,'' she can't walk very well or count to ten, but she can recognize her gaily clothed, loud, ever-present alcoholic mother, who sings to her: ``Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better,'' begging Branda to join in. But Branda can't join in and doesn't get better; and after she's been reluctantly discharged by her doctors, she no longer can perform schoolwork and doesn't feel comfortable waitressing in her mother's tavern. So her mother packs her off to London on a squalid handicapped group tour, which Branda soon escapes. But she can't take care of herself--what to do? She meets a transvestite nightclub owner--much resembling her mother- -who takes her in, and then a small young waitress named Sam, with whom she falls in love. After facing fears of loneliness, early death, and incapacity, Branda learns what her mother seems always to have known: Optimism sometimes proves to be prophetic rather than silly, like throwing roses at the Thames. A promising writer, but material that remains unformed. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Ridley's first novel deals with emotional and physical healing. After 17-year-old Brenda Raggan is badly injured in an auto accident, her mother, concerned about Brenda's depression, books her daughter on a "special needs" tour to London. Despite a severely injured leg, Brenda escapes from the tour and goes to live with Lady Sabrina, a transvestite performer and puppeteer who has rescued her from the London streets. Brenda comes to love and appreciate Sabrina, a skillfully rendered character, and his ministrations provide her with healing support and encouragement. In a rather abrupt ending, Brenda leaves Sabrina for Sam, a woman friend with whom she has been having a love affair. Ridley's unusual theme is marred by her poorly paced plot and the insensitive manner, not humorous to some people, in which she lampoons handicapped members of the special needs tour.
- Harriet Gottfried, NYPL
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.