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Title details for At the Breakers by Mary Ann Taylor-Hall - Available

At the Breakers

A Novel

by Mary Ann Taylor-Hall
ebook
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1 of 1 copy available

A woman in trouble tries to change her life in a “beautifully written” novel about “the complex demands and joys and risks of all kinds of love” (Kim Edwards, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Memory Keeper’s Daughter).
 
Jo Sinclair, a single parent of four children, has fled an abusive relationship, winding up in Sea Cove, New Jersey, in front of The Breakers, a salty old hotel in the process of renovation. In this unlikely setting, Jo is intent on finding a way to renovate herself, to reclaim the promising life that was derailed by pregnancy when she was fourteen.
 
She impulsively convinces the owner to give her a job painting the rooms and settles in with her youngest child, thirteen-year-old Nick. A grand cast of characters wanders through this little world, among them Iris Zephyr, the hotel’s ninety-two-year-old permanent boarder; Charlie, a noble mixed breed dog; Wendy, Jo’s tough eighteen-year-old daughter, who has suffered most from her mother’s past mistakes; and Marco, the nearby gas station owner, who seems likely to become her mother’s next mistake. But soon Jo’s former teacher, a well-known and exuberant poet, arrives on the premises to stir everything up, including Jo’s yearning for a life of art and committed love.
 
At The Breakers is a deeply felt and beautifully written novel about forgiveness and reconciliation by the acclaimed author of Come and Go, Molly Snow. Its heroine, put through the fire, comes out with a chance for happiness—if she can muster the faith, courage, and optimism to take that chance.
 
“Incisive, witty prose.” —Kirkus Reviews

  • Creators

  • Series

    Kentucky Voices

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    June 29, 2012

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780813138992

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780813138992
      • File size: 1117 KB

    • Open EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780813138992
      • File size: 563 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      February 1, 2009
      In Taylor-Hall's long-awaited second novel (Come and Go, Molly Snow, 1995), a single mother flees an abusive boyfriend and finds life-healing respite in a quaint seashore hotel.

      Jo, whose sorry track record with men began at age 14 when, pregnant, she had to drop out of high school to get married, is now finally back on track at age 42. While waitressing double shifts in New Brunswick, N.J., she's managed to complete her bachelor's degree over nine years and has writerly ambitions. Her four children—the oldest is 28—have three different fathers. Most troubled is daughter Wendy, 18, a mercurial neobohemian right out of Rent. Jo never learned what happened during the three weeks Wendy went missing at age 14. (Wendy refused to talk about it after a private detective rescued her.) Jo's latest boyfriend Hank, a trucking executive, has domineering tendencies she unwisely ignores. After a too-brief birthday lunch with Wendy in New York City, Jo runs into whimsical, 60-ish, symbolically named Victor Mangold, her former writing professor. Their innocent flirtation is observed by a friend of Hank's. Hank accuses Jo of infidelity and rapes her. Traumatized and terrified, Jo escapes to The Breakers, on the Jersey shore, where she earns a hotel manager job by helping with renovations. Among the hotel's denizens are the usual charming eccentrics, including a 92-year-old former stripper and a genteel Russian viola player. A winsome younger gas-station owner almost thrusts her into another no-win blue-collar liaison. But Victor lures Jo back to Manhattan. Then an alarm sounds from The Breakers: Wendy is about to marry Jean-Luc, a gay Haitian musician, to help him get a green card. What begins as a woman-in-jeopardy plot shifts focus, as the Hank stalking threat simply dissipates. Except for the disclosure of Wendy's harrowing secret, the second half of the book, dominated by the impossibly sprightly Victor, is pleasant but predictable.

      Taylor-Hall's incisive, witty prose redeems potentially mawkish material.

      (COPYRIGHT (2009) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

Formats

  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook
  • Open EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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