Mockingbird - Hardcover

Stewart, Sean

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0441005470 ISBN 13: 9780441005475

Publisher: Ace Hardcover, 1998

Synopsis

The author of the New York Times Notable Book, Resurrection Man, tells the story of two sisters whose destinies are shaped by their mother's legacy of supernatural powers, passed on through the Mockingbird Cordial.

About this title

About the Author

Sean Stewart is the acclaimed author of Galveston, The Night Watch, Clouds End, the New York Times Notable Book Resurrection Man, the Aurora Award-winner Nobody's Son, and the Aurora and Arthur Ellis Award-winning debut Passion Play. He lives in Davis, California, with his wife and two daughters.

Reviews

Fusing prophecy, pregnancy and voodoo, Stewart (The Night Watch) delivers a fanciful magic realist tale set in modern-day Houston. After her mother dies, Antoinette ("Toni") Beauchamp receives a "gift she can't refuse": visitations from her mother's personal gods. These gods, or riders, are given access to Toni when her sister, Candy, following instructions left by their mother, feeds Toni a doctored drink. The beverage makes Toni receptive to the gods, who ride around inside her head and use her body to further their own ends. Sickened by this invasion and saddened by the loss of her mother, Toni decides to have a child. The narrative follows the progress of Toni's pregnancy and her struggles to keep the riders in check. Toni's rambling first-person narrative is vivacious and entertaining. The characterizations of Toni, Candy, their beaus and their father shine with humor and a Southern sauciness. Laced throughout are stories about the riders that illuminate their attributes and add an element of dark whimsy to the narrative. This isn't Stewart's most tightly focused novel, but his poignant take on voodoo among middle-class women makes for delicious fun.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Contemporary metaphorical fantasy from the author of Night Watch (1997). Momma, Elena Beauchamp of Houston, Texas, has died of cancer, leaving two daughters to argue over her legacy: Momma, you see, was a witch, and while Toni, the plain, practical daughter, wants neither the benefits nor the burdens that accrue, gorgeous and optimistic Candy would welcome the gift. The Riders, spirits embodied in a set of weird dolls, yielded Momma her magic abilities; but in exchange, the mercurial Mockingbird, the cold, hard Preacher, Sugar the flirt, Pierrot the cruel clown, the stern, protective Widow, or the implacable, manipulative Mr. Copper would also mount, or possess, her for a while. Momma, too, would tell heart-rending stories about a Little Lost Girl who could never find her way home. At the funeral, Candyshe can sometimes see the future, but only its happy eventstricks Toni into drinking Mommas Mockingbird Cordial (as Momma had instructed), and poor Toni finds shes inherited the Riders against her will. Even worse, Toni learns all about Mommas darkest secretsnot just the drunkenness, cruelty, and favoritism, but debts, affairs, even another daughter whom the Widow forced Momma to abandon. In confronting these unexpected developments, Toni slowly learns to take control of her own life and comes to understand and accept Mommas gift that cannot be refused. Knotty, unsparing, and impressively wrought, but what it all means is anyones guess. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

After her mother's death, Toni Beauchamp discovers her true inheritance?an inner gift that makes her the conduit for a group of "Riders," archetypal gods that possess her at their whim to set into motion their own mysterious schemes. Set in an alternate-Earth reinfused by magical forces, the latest novel by the author of Resurrection Man (LJ 5/15/95) depicts a reality in which even the smallest events resound with import and in which a young woman's efforts to make peace with her past lead her to a confrontation with the conspiratorial spirits that shape her future. Stewart's elegant prose imparts a lyrical feel to this tale that should appeal to fans of subtle fantasy and magical realism.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Elena Beauchamp, a most formidable woman, was possessed by the Riders--six spirits who each occasionally "mounted" her consciousness, replacing her personality with his or her own. When Elena dies, her elder daughter Toni supposes she has seen the last of the Riders, but after imbibing the "mockingbird cordial" Elena directed her to quaff in memoriam, they start riding her. Undaunted, she forges ahead with plans to have a baby by artificial insemination, help curvaceous sister Candy marry boyfriend Carlos (who, by the way, drives a decorated hearse known as the Muertomobile), and get Elena's friend Mary Jo's roof fixed. It would also be nice if Toni could find out who the Little Lost Girl Elena talked about so much really is. Everything on Toni's agenda is accomplished within a year full of magic, more death, commodities market speculation, an exorcism, and a hurricane. Stewart's Houston-set sentimental sitcom, sort of a Fried Green Tomatoes rethought by Stephen King, is avant-garde for fantasy fiction--earthily charming and hilarious rather than heroic and horrifying. Ray Olson

Edition details

• Publisher: Ace Hardcover
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0441005470
• ISBN 13: 9780441005475
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 278