From Publishers Weekly
Kalpakian's narrative skill and interest in generational legacies are evident in her latest novel, in which the theory of progressive education becomes the catalyst for a fateful intertwining of several lives. The setting is Temple School, founded by Sophia Westerveldt, the daughter of a lumber tycoon. Sophia had an affair with avant-garde painter Denis Aron in France, where she'd gone to develop her artistic sensibility before WWI. After the war she returned to Washington and, with her husband, started the experimental school for "North American Women of the Future" on Kalpakian's trademark setting, Isadora Island in Puget Sound. Waverly Scott, the 14-year-old illegitimate daughter of a rich man and his secretary, arrives at the school in 1939. Although Temple is past its prime, the next two years are the most important of Waverly's life, because she meets Avril Aron, the daughter of Sophia's old lover, who in 1940 is sent from occupied Paris. Avril and Waverly eventually become "Wavril," two bodies, one soul. Both girls fall for Sandy Lomax, a local boy with aspirations, who becomes Wavril's lover in a teen menage a trois. Their summer of love is cut short when Waverly's mother removes her from the school. While Waverly fails to adjust to mainstream life, Avril marries Sandy and gives birth to a daughter before an accident changes everybody's life. Two decades later, Waverly returns to Isadora, where, adopting the nom de plume of Nona York, she becomes a successful romance writer. Memories of her youth are forcefully rekindled when her summer temp turns out to bear the legacy of long-ago love. References to characters in her previous Steps and Exes add depth to Kalpakian's story, but the narrative's main appeal lies in the well-kept secrets that eventually surface, casting the shadow of history on destinies formed in the wake of tragic events.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Veteran novelist and short-story writer Kalpakian (Delinquent Virgin) spins a fascinating tale of Waverley Scott's experiences from age 14 to the final stages of her life as an elderly, reclusive romance novelist. At 14, Waverley is unformed and uninformed but not na‹ve; she realizes that she has been sent to Temple School on isolated Isadora Island because she looks too much like her mother's married employer (also Waverley's "guardian"). Traveling with them on almost continuous business trips, she has not attended school or made friends. At Temple School, Waverley is inspired by independent, impractical headmistress Sophia Westervelt and forms a bond with classmates and Sandy Lomax, a local island boy. From these first significant relationships, Waverley forms her opinions on love, romance, and the independence of women. The characters are endearingly human and eccentric; the reader will empathize with their plights as they fulfill their destinies against the background of World War II. At times lighthearted and at other times heartbreaking, Kalpakian's novel is spellbinding from start to finish. Recommended for academic and public libraries. Cheryl L. Conway, Univ. of Arkansas Lib., Fayetteville
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
