Lucky in the Corner: A Novel [Hardcover]

Carol Anshaw (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 22, 2002

Nora and Fern are just like any other mother and daughter - their relationship is tumultuous, marked by brooding silences and curt exchanges. For Nora, Fern is an enigma - incomprehensible, unfindable. Fern has never really forgiven her mother for leaving her marriage to live with her lover, Jeanne. Their story is a contemporary one, in which mothering is a mapless journey and children are left to form themselves in the shadows cast by idiosyncratic parenting. Here, too, is the reality that perfectly reasonable people will find some way to throw a wrench into the smooth, well-oiled workings of their lives. Nora’s relationship with Jeanne has settled into domestic stability, triggering in Nora a familiar restlessness that leads to an affair. When Fern intuits her mother’s indiscretion, she looks to the two people she depends on most: her uncle Harold and her best friend, Tracy, who now has the overwhelming task of raising a baby. As Fern begins to take on more of the baby's care herself, she discovers some of the powerful ambiguities of parental love - and starts to find her way back to her own mother.
Carol Anshaw has been praised for her "warmhearted sympathies and lively wit" (Newsday). LUCKY IN THE CORNER, with the author's inimitable humor and insight, shows us the way a family reconfigures itself as unexpected changes come its way - and how, no matter what shape it takes, it remains a family.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

A zinger of an opening scene, narrated with brio and poetic clarity, inaugurates the emotional tension and sweetly farcical action of this new novel by Anshaw (Aquamarine). Fern, 21, is a senior in college. More than a decade ago, her Chicago college administrator mother, Nora, left Fern's father to come out of the closet and live with her lover, Jeanne. A casualty of Nora's new identity, Fern is still sullen and vulnerable, and not about to make things easier for her mother, especially when she discovers that Nora is cheating on Jeanne, having succumbed to the passion ignited by tough-girl Pam, a construction worker. Fern also worries about her best friend, Tracy, a perennially restless and reckless adventurer who feels tied down by her new baby, born out of wedlock. Then Fern herself falls in love with a guy who has problems. Fortunately, Fern can confide in her Uncle Harold, a gentle cross-dresser who on Thursday afternoons hosts his canasta club as Dolores. The characters may be offbeat, but the novel is mainstream in its appeal, radiating energy and humor, and dispensing wisdom about the frailties of the human heart. Anshaw's prose sparkles with gems of description and solid psychological perceptions. The narrative smoothly integrates the flash points in mother-daughter relations, the bonds and tensions between lovers, the sexual fires that disrupt a trusting relationship, the ties that constitute family and the deep affection between a girl and her dog. The eponymous Lucky has been the one constant in Fern's life; his death is a touching rite of passage, when Fern understands that she has learned to take responsibility and feel compassion for herself and others. Agent, Jean Naggar. (May 22)Forecast: Movie scouts, take note. This could be a real winner on the silver screen.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Expertly crafted, with just the right amount of tension, drama, and humor, Anshaw's new novel is the kind of work that readers love to savor, anxiously reading ahead but regretting that it must come to an end. Nora and her teenage daughter, Fern, have a typically contentious relationship. They share a house with Nora's partner, Jeanne, and their dog, Lucky, and life is purring along until Nora makes a bad decision that results in a painful disruption of their family life. Fern, wise beyond her years, emerges as the real caregiver, checking in with her depressive boyfriend, rescuing her best friend from becoming a child abuser, and ultimately even putting her battles with her mother on hold long enough to help Nora recover her footing in life. Anshaw creates intelligent characters about whom the reader will come to care deeply. Her characterization of the aging family dog is as considered and detailed as that of the human principals in the story and will strike a familiar chord with pet owners. Anshaw is the author of two Lambda Award finalists, Aquamarine and Seven Moves. Her latest is highly recommended for all fiction collections. Caroline Mann, Univ. of Portland Lib., OR
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (May 22, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395940400
• ISBN-13: 978-0395940402
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,580,195 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Pleasant to read, yes, but sophisticated and compelling, too, January 29, 2006

By 

D. Sullivan (Belmont, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lucky in the Corner: A Novel (Paperback)

I agree with the reviewer who said that this book was "pleasant" to read--it *is* very easy and accessible. But just don't confuse that with simplistic, either in the ideas it offers or the way it presents them. The way in which the main character wrestles with fidelity, with contentment, really, is very believable as it is sketched out. The supporting characters are well-executed, and the arc of the plot is satisfying and illuminating. You're left hanging a bit by the conclusion, but it works. I promptly went out upon reading this and got another of her books--it's that good. (Don't be put off by the cover, which makes the story look flaky and light, a la Diane Johnson/Le Divorce; there's real life between *these* covers.)

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Delicious, May 31, 2002

By 

Catfish_Hunter (Oak Park, Il) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lucky in the Corner: A Novel (Hardcover)

Maybe I'm just a sucker for a good book about Chicago, dogs, babies, transvestites, lesbians, teenagers, love and longing, but boy I sure did like this one. Carol Anshaw's way around an image is fresh and exquisite. --One of those "If I could only write like THAT" experiences. Add this to your summer list (and beyond). This one's a winner.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impersonations of sane, January 2, 2003

By 

"blissengine" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lucky in the Corner: A Novel (Hardcover)

Fern's relationship with her mother Nora has always been strained, ever since the messy divorce due to Nora's affairs with women. Nora has eventually settled down with Jeanne, but the tension between mother and daughter remains. Fern's best friend drops her baby into Fern's lap and slowly drifts from the picture, and Fern's most stable relationship is with her dog Lucky, but with the dog's health waning, this seems to be ending as well. And when Nora begins another affair, Fern is first to figure it out and leaps at the chance to judge her mother, but as events progress, she begins to realize her mother is human after all. And with Lucky dying, both mother and daughter come to better understandings about themselves and their relationship with each other. "Lucky in the Corner" is full of glorious complexities about us humans, and Anshaw has written this tale in a tidal mosaic, where episodes from the past and present interweave, blessing the reader with all aspects of these fascinating characters and leaving us with a sense of what family (especially those extended families of non-blood relatives) means.