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.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In the opening pages of Schweighardt's antic novel, the heart attack of an elderly widower leaves his two adult daughters with the questions faced by many adult offspring. But these are not ordinary daughters. Liz is blessed with a bountiful family, a potentially straying husband, and fantasies. Sherri, diagnosed as retarded when a child, and schizophrenic as an adult, is busy writing ads that say, "Nice overweight problem girl wishes to meet nice problem man. . . " She does, and that causes more problems. This family is prime material, therefore, for an elderly, snooping neighbor. But readers will feel a bit voyeuristic, too, reading this dark and zany novel. Denise Perry Donavin
