Ghost Note

When the musician father who mysteriously disappeared thirty years before returns after their mother's death, three sisters must confront their feelings as they learn new lessons about love, forgiveness, and tolerance.

The meager dramas and insights of a made-for-TV movie fill this inconsequential novel by the author of A Cooler Climate. Lois and Diane, 30-ish sisters, are going through their recently deceased mother's belongings when who should ring their doorbell but a stranger identifying himself as Charles Hazzard, their father, returning for the first time since he deserted the family just before his third child's birth. The two women initially resist his overtures, but their resentment gives way to a grudging respect for his uncanny rapport with their slightly retarded and distinctly volatile younger sister, Ella, and gradually they reevaluate their mother's version of their family history. As Charlie helps expand Ella's horizons, his presence also inspires Lois to test the limits of the dull marriage in which she has sought refuge; Diane, in contrast, becomes capable at last of commitment to a Prince Charming of a suitor. Characters and story lines rarely venture past the formulaic, and Collier's play-it-safe prose ("She saw it all now, clear as a landscape etched by lightning") seems aimed at readers similarly uninterested in taking risks. Literary Guild alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Three sisters react to their mother's recent death and the unexpected return of the father who left home 30 years earlier--in Collier's second effort, which, unfortunately, shares the problems of her first (A Cooler Climate, 1990): you can see the wheels turning, but there's just no traction. Lois, the oldest sister--rigid, controlled, and determinedly conformist--works efficiently on clearing out her mother's house and dividing the property fairly, all the while consumed with worry about her son Ned, who's dropped out of college to live on the fringe of society. Diane, a few years younger than Lois and still single, is a successful freelance writer and chain-smoker who agonizes over commitment. Should she agree to marry Adam, the kind, intelligent, honest, and attractive man who loves her? Ella, the youngest sister, is retarded. Her reaction to the death of the mother who was devoted to her is simple grief. She spends hours in the rocking chair in her mother's bedroom, rocking, rocking. Into all this walks 70-year-old Charlie Hazzard, jazz musician and erstwhile father. Charlie lights up the house--and the novel. He's the most substantial character here, and his conflicts over his two lives ring true. But before things can really be resolved, Collier dispatches him to a final--and premature--fate. Without him, the storyline falls to pieces. The three self-involved sisters, cut out with a heavy hand, end up being paper-doll-thin. Their stylized, almost archaic way of speaking also distances them from us. ``My, you're a cool customer'' is Lois's response to Charlie's request for a cup of coffee when he first arrives at their door. ``Sorry we weren't expecting the return of the prodigal father or we'd have laid in a stock.'' Strong words, weak message--in all, a bitter brew. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Fay Hazzard's death eventually leads husband Charlie and daughters Diane, Lois, and Ella to a new awareness of one another. Diane and Lois are forced to reexamine their past when the father they haven't seen in 30 years mysteriously reappears on their doorstep and their mentally disabled sister Ella must find a new home. This second novel by the author of A Cooler Climate ( LJ 6/1/90) takes a touching look at modern families and the repercussions of divorce. Charlie helps the sisters both accept their past and attain new knowledge about themselves and their relationships. Highly recommended.-- Kathy Ingels Helmond, Indiana Univ.
Purdue Univ. at Indianapolis Lib.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.