Homebodies - Hardcover

Schweighardt, Joan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1877946443 ISBN 13: 9781877946448

Publisher: Permanent Pr Pub Co, 1994

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

From Kirkus Reviews:

Putting a nosy neighbor in the position of narrating events she could neither witness nor learn about secondhand is the awkward device that launches this dark comedy about a troubled family, by the author of Island (1992). On the surface, the Arroways seem happy. When elderly Martha Bowker decides to fend off boredom by keeping an eye on them, however, she finds that appearances are deceiving. Father Pete, a ghostwriter, sees himself as weak and has turned to Robert Bly and Batman for strength; he drifts into a flirtation with a business associate about whom he has obsessive fantasies. Mother Liz cares for their three children, her schizophrenic sister Sherri, and her ailing father, but she has isolated herself emotionally since the death 11 years earlier of her daughter Maddy. Liz believes that a ghostly Maddy appears to her in the dark, but she keeps the visitations a secret from Pete, sure that he will try to prove they aren't real. Jake, Katie, and baby Brigit are healthy and growing. But 12-year-old Jake, who believes his father hates him, is convinced that he accidentally killed his sister and his mother lied to protect him. Katie has an invisible friend whom she refuses to give up and Pete refuses to acknowledge. Then Liz finds out about Pete's flirtation, and Pete discovers Liz's obsession with Maddy when he reads her diary. Martha, who has insinuated herself into the Arroway home, waits patiently for a denouement. When Sherri shares Jake's painful secret with the rest of the family, Pete and Liz are finally forced to face the problems arising from their distractions, and the Arroways have a chance of actually becoming the happy family they appear to be. Despite the clumsy narrative premise, Schweighardt looks at domestic problems with honesty and humor. -- Copyright �1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Communication-and the lack of it-is at the heart of this uneven and slow novel, as Schweighardt (Island) explores the lot of the tormented Arroway family. Grandfather Fred lies semi-paralyzed in a New Jersey nursing home, desperate to impart some information to Sherri and Liz, his two daughters. But they do not connect. Sherri is schizophrenic and mildly retarded; her violent outbursts and promiscuous behavior burden Liz, who has problems of her own: visitations from her daughter Maddy, who died in early childhood, and a shaky marriage to the enigmatic Pete (who is estranged from his parents). Contact between this couple is at best elliptical; only in their powerful dreams and visions do they seem to grasp their fears and desires. (Their two oldest children, also, are spinning off in worlds of their own.) It remains for a relentlessly nosy neighbor, Martha Bowker, to pry into each family member's hidden diary and discover what these off-kilter and edgy people are trying to say to each other. There are many flashes of genuine humor here, but all the pondering adds up to little, and a false finale caps off a disappointing novel.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.