In its nuanced portrait of a middle-aged suburbanite and his family, APPEARANCES challenges easy assumptions about the nature of kinship and selfhood, of crime and punishment, of appearance and reality. Steven Howe-Boomer, lawyer, family man-has settled into midlife contentment. Then, unexpectedly, Steven finds himself doubly shaken by something that a data search uncovers. Steven's father, Alonzo "Lon" Howe-long assumed to have died in 1958-is, in fact, still alive. And he is incarcerated in the Colorado State Penitentiary, two hours' drive south of where Steven lives in Denver. What follows is a series of revelations that shake Steven's perceptions of himself, his family, and his marriage. Unafraid of risking controversy in the pursuit of insight into the human condition, APPEARANCES is Joanne Greenberg's finest, most challenging, and most compassionate novel.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I hope she never stops writing,
By Blue Ox "Esmerelda" (Texas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: APPEARANCES (Paperback)
Joanne Greenberg is a master of the human condition--but never slaps you upside the head with abject sentimentality. Moving moments sneak up on you. You find yourself remembering what it really means to be a parent, or, for that matter, a child. Awakenings has an added bonus: evocative scenes set in the Colorado mountains, in the kind small towns that are rapidly going extinct. The book bristles with a maturity you don't have to be mature to appreciate. Enough already with I Never Promised You a Rose Garden. More people need to read the rest of Greenberg's absorbing work.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Moving Novel About a Difficult Subject,
By MSW (New Jersey) - See all my reviews
This review is from: APPEARANCES (Paperback)
I took APPEARANCES with me on a train ride because the book I was already reading was too large to carry. I started reading and couldn't stop, and I ended up crying my eyes out. It's a very moving book about a difficult subject--a man discovers dark secrets of his father's past. We need more books like this for grownpups!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everyone should read this book!,
By
This review is from: APPEARANCES (Paperback)
This book really hit me hard emotionally. I read it during my morning commute and there were a few times when I was on the verge of getting teary for my sympathy to the story's father-son relationship. And most importantly, I appreciated how this book does not end cornily.
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