Acts of God: A Novel [Hardcover]

Mary Morris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2, 2000

In Anita Nair’s warm and imaginative first novel, middle-aged bachelor Mukundan returns to his native Indian village and is haunted by the past. Determined to conquer old ghosts, Mukundan decides to restore his childhood home and hires One-Screw-Loose Bhasi, an outcast painter, to oversee the renovations. A practitioner of a unique style of healing, Bhasi sets about mending his troubled friend, but the durability of Mukundan’s transformation into a better man is soon called into question. With humor, wisdom, and a keen understanding of human frailty, Anita Nair has written a playful and moving account of the redemptive power of friendship.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"My father used to say that sometimes you think you know a person, only to find out that you don't," says narrator Tess Winterstone at the casual, engaging beginning of Morris's (House Arrest) new novel, predicting what readers may come to feel about this opaque heroine. At 48, Tess vacillates in a small California town with no real job, no close friends and few prospects. She feels "stable" to have been divorced only once. The story knits together her contradictions, showing how a boomer generation individual like Tess could exist indefinitely on a fault line. Encouraged to attend her 30th high school reunion by her grown, slacker children, Tess returns to her hometown, outside Chicago, where she encounters her erstwhile rival, Margaret Blair. Flashbacks to her school days explore Tess's tense friendship with penurious, fatherless Margaret, who inserted herself into Tess's in-crowd and stole her boyfriend. Margaret and her mother, Clarice, were a more integral part of Tess's family than she suspected, however. Tess's mother was a typical '50s homemaker, and her father, Victor, was a traveling insurance claims adjuster whose work involved visiting the scenes of natural disasters. After the reunion, rekindled friendships and an affair with Margaret's husband eventually force Tess to confront deeply buried memories and to realize that Victor's travels were an alibi for some very serious deceptions. The mechanics of this domestic intrigue are all that is revealed, however, because Morris barely scratches the surface of her characters. Dialogue is meticulously offered, details of the suburban town and the era's social mores are aptly noted, but Tess is never a knowable person, and other characters who should be vividly rendered remain sketches. Tess claims to have an "archival mind"; perhaps a novel about family secrets requires a narrator who can interpret as well as archive the facts.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Tess Winterstone grew up in Winonah, outside of Chicago, the daughter of an insurance adjuster. Now she lives on the Pacific Coast in a house she cannot insure because it will inevitably slip into the ocean. Her 30th high school reunion takes her to Winonah and brings back a flood of memories of her 1950s childhood, her late father, and Margaret, the new girl from the wrong side of the tracks who entered uninvited into Tess's social world when both girls were ten years old. Now, as quickly as before, Tess finds herself strangely bound to Margaret, despite a history of lies and deception that that the two are quickly repeating in the present. Morris does a good job of building tension, exploring Tess's motivations, and showing how Tess tries to understand Margaret. This is another worthy effort from Morris (House Arrest; Angels & Aliens), who never writes the same book twice. Recommended for public library fiction collections.DDebbie Bogenschutz, Cincinnati State Technical & Community Coll., OH
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Picador; 1st edition (September 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312246633
• ISBN-13: 978-0312246631
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,867,671 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A tour de force, September 24, 2000

By 

Mia Yun (New York, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Acts of God: A Novel (Hardcover)

I've been a Mary Morris's fan for a long time and I really loved her latest novel, Acts of God. It is a tour de force!

Set in the Midwest of the 50's and in the breath-taking Pacific coast some thirty years later, clear-eyed Mary Morris weaves an intriguing story of the lasting and devastating effect of a childhood event. The novel's narrator, Tess, was Daddy's girl who accompanied her father, an insurance agent, on trips to farmlands devastated by natural disasters. Then one Indian summer, a mysterious little girl and her mother, Margaret and Clarice Blair, came to town, to Winonah, to live above Santini's Liquor on the wrong side of the town, and forever alter the courses of Tess's and her family's lives. It is about a family secret, a parent's betrayal, class and childhood friendship and much, much more. I recommend this book very highly.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Major Accomplishment from a Major Writer, November 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Acts of God: A Novel (Hardcover)

I've been a fan of Mary Morris for a long time, but was blown away by this novel. ACTS OF GOD has Morris' signature prose style (dazzling imagery, lyrical language), but is also richly textured and deftly paced. Her characters are real and complex, and I was thoroughly transported to another time, another place (which is my favorite way to read). Tell your friends, stake out the bookstores, shout it loud: THIS IS AN AWESOME BOOK. In a time when the most banal novels receive the most over-blown praise, ACTS OF GOD truly stands out as a powerful, riveting, and consuming story of what it means to confront your past so you can contend with your present. I LOVED THIS BOOK (and I'm a wickedly hard judge)! Mary Morris is a gifted writer and ACTS of GOD is the perfect showcase for her talents. Bravo!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A stunning novel, January 23, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Acts of God: A Novel (Hardcover)

What a pleasure it was to read Mary Morris's new novel. I love the way she works the surface tension for its underlying meaning--the cut from the razor blade that leaves Squirrel, the main character, wearing her childhood on her arm, the hoarding Squirrel who "doesn't give anythign away" about her real self. Too much risk. I love the way risk runs through--the skewed values, that a child's death is worth less than that of a working spouse, how Squirrel's father, the insurance man, reduces everything to cold math and longing. I love the way Morris so clearly etches the world of Chicago--the old Indian trail, the lake, the maples, and the inner world of her characters into a moving, compelling whole.