Departures [Paperback]

Lorna J. Cook (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The Vanderzees are always going somewhere, if only in their minds. Suzen is on the verge of graduating from high school, but college isn't where she wants to go, nor is she being honest about who she really is. Perhaps she is too preoccupied with the comings and goings of her mother, whose mysterious phone calls and indifference to the domesticities of the Vanderzee household have become painfully obvious. Then there's young Evan, who seems to be the only one who is actually going where he wants to, but he's chosen an unbalanced companion in Soci, a first love who represents all things rebellious. While they desperately try to sort through their lives, Suzen's father sits in his den leafing through old travel magazines, endlessly planning a trip to Italy that he never seems to take. Cook expertly communicates the very cryptic nature of life's cycles, conveying through her entertaining family that life is always in transition, no matter how stable it appears. Elsa Gaztambide
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Vivid language and intense characters enliven this honest portrait of domestic vulnerability."
- Entertainment Weekly (2/27/04)

"Teenagers being mortified by their parents is practically a rite of passage. In Cook's cleareyed first novel, Malcolm and Esme VanderZee are subjected to the irritable scrutiny of not one but two teenage children, to gently comic effect... Cook crisply conveys the adolescents' raw, awkward love lives--especially Suzen's crush on a vivacious older woman...The novel's ultimate power rests with Suzen's coming-of-age, which is as quiet but as decisive as a door swinging open."
- New York Times Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (December 23, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312321295
• ISBN-13: 978-0312321291
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,835,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lorna Jane Cook was born in northern California, grew up in Michigan, and has lived in Athens, Greece; Philadelphia, PA; and Washington, D.C. She currently lives in Michigan with her family. With a B.A. in Psychology/Sociology, she worked in a runaway shelter, a group home for teenage girls, an emergency services agency, and also on Capital Hill as a legislative assistant before turning to writing full time. She is the author of OUTSIDE WONDERLAND, DEPARTURES, and HOME AWAY FROM HOME. "What I love about writing," she says, "is having a place to go that is always evolving. No matter what is happening in my real life, my writing world is separate and endlessly interesting. My hope is that when a reader steps into that world, he or she will be just as happy to be there as I was when I created it."
You can visit Lorna's website at: www.lornajcook.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice Little Story, April 12, 2004

By 

Elizabeth Hendry (New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Departures (Hardcover)

Departures tells a nice little story of teen angst that revolves around the Vanderzee family, in particular, their two oldest children--a boy and a girl currently in high school. Each struggles with his or her newly discovered [physical] identity. The story is warmly comic and the characters are interesting. There was nothing in this novel that really wowed me, I have to say, but it is an enjoyable read.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Departures~, February 7, 2004

By 

Sandra Mitchell "Sandra Mitchell" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Departures (Hardcover)

Lorna J. Cook has done a wonderful job giving us a peek into the VanderZee family and into the hearts and minds of its family members. Her writing reminds me a bit of Anne Tyler in that while nothing big happens, by the end of the novel you feel you know the main characters so thoroughly, you feel a part of the family. Cook takes a look at the different roles each member plays, what their hopes and dreams are and how differently they can perceive one another, often times completely misreading each other. This is a charming story about family life, a snapshot into one growing phase of the VanderZee family. Cook is an excellent writer. I look forward to reading her future novels~

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Portrait of a Family, May 24, 2005

By 

Brittany Rose (Winnipeg, MB) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Departures (Hardcover)

This book read very much like the Academy Award winning movie American Beauty - an outsider's chance to peer into a normal family life and find out (by looking closer) all of the inconsistencies in their nuclear lifestyle.

The story follows the VanderZee's, a family with two parents (Malcolm, a university professor, and Esme, a former artist turned stay-at-home mom) and four children: Suzen, Evan, Hallie, and Aimee. Suzen, aged seventeen, and Evan, fifteen, take turns alternating the story in brief tableaus rather than chapters - describing scenes from their personal lives, their social lives, their inner thoughts, and during events in which they are both present.

Suzen is bitter and resolved to distance herself from her family - losing herself in her work at a local nursery. She dreams of living in the english countryside, and falling in love, and as the book travels along she begins to question just who she should be looking for love from.

Evan is more similar to Suzen than either of them would like to admit - he is also angsty and distanced, but in a much less obvious way. He lives in a dream world, like Suzen, but his consists of drama, glamour, and aspirations to live in Europe, or to at least hook up with a cute girl in one of his classes.

The story weaves each of the six family members lives together over the span of a few weeks - with everything from a near-death experience, a suspected affair, and secret plots and twists developing in each character's life.

While Cook manages to create a realistic portrayal of family life, without being too cliched or over the top, she fails to conclude all of the little hints of storylines she drops in the three quarters of the book. The climax of the novel is messy and not particularly relevant to Evan or Suzen's lives - it is merely the event which spurs Evan and Suzen to come to their own personal epiphanies.

All in all this is a good read, where Cook manages to take ordinary people, and ordinary situations and conflicts - and make them entertaining, engaging, and captivating - albeit, a little but unfinished. Then again, perhaps Cook's point is life cannot be summed up in a book - after all, you only see the story from two character's perspectives, which might not even give you the whole story.