Owl Island: A Novel (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: randy sue coburn, jas mine, Port Pritchard, Land of Make Believe, Peter Pan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As a brilliant, gorgeous, hypertalented 15-year-old in the '70s, Phoebe Allen fell under the spell of 31-year-old movie director Whitney Traynor. By 18, she's living with him and coauthoring his screenplay for no credit; at 19 she's pregnant and married to musician Mitchell Gentry; a few years later she's a widow. Flash forward to 1996, where the book actually opens, and Phoebe's blossoming love affair with a local artist on Owl Island in the Pacific Northwest is interrupted by Whitney's arrival. Phoebe's 21-year-old daughter, Laurienne, learns for the first time about her mother's relationship with the now-famous director, who may be her real father. Coburn (Remembering Jody) mishandles the mother-daughter conflict by attempting to equate it with Phoebe's own mother keeping secret the family's history at Auschwitz, but the comparison doesn't ever line up. The familiar melodrama is further marred by overwrought prose ("When she slammed the door, Phoebe heard the crash of shattered trust"), driving Coburn's story into camp territory. (June)
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From Booklist

Comfortably settled in the idyllic Pacific Northwest enclave of Owl Island, widow Phoebe Allen finally has her life under control. She has a thriving business supplying nets to local fishermen, a lovely adult daughter, a circle of compassionate friends, and a budding romance with a talented local artist. But when her first love, Whitney Traynor, buys a home in town, Phoebe is forced to confront long-stifled secrets from her past. Some 25 years earlier, Phoebe and Whitney, now an independent filmmaker, collaborated on a movie about Kiki de Montparnasse, a real-life doyenne of the Paris demimonde. The work won Whitney critical acclaim, but his unchecked ego and libido lost him the love of his life. Among his moral transgressions: refusing to acknowledge Phoebe's pivotal role in bringing Kiki to the big screen. Coburn's plot shifts haphazardly from present to past and is often painfully predictable (Whitney gets a dramatic dose of karma at novel's end), but her depictions of the Pacific Northwest--with its windswept beaches and cedar-scented air--are evocative and rich. Allison Block
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books; First Ed edition (June 13, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 034548763X
• ISBN-13: 978-0345487636
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,773,466 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Sensual Puget Sound 'Masala', July 5, 2006

By	G. G. McMahon - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Owl Island by Randy Sue Coburn is a delicious read, steeped in local detail, pungent salt air, and packed with the quirky mix of individuals who make up our urban and rural Puget Sound Communities. Native locals will thoroughly enjoy reading this book, and arrivestes will love it for the insights and inside scope on local culture. The reader travels through the NW counter culture of the early 70s, (as seen through the eyes of Phoebe, a spunky, brainy, rebellious young woman,) to the present NW scene, with its fabulous mix of intellectuals, filmakers, musicians, artists, craftspeople, fishermen, biotech researchers, animated gamemakers, entrepreneurs of herbal teas, body piercings and tattoos! As this journey unfolds, Coburn shapes a sensitive and suspense filled study of the complexity of human relationships. Moral issues abound as well: in the biotech world, the filmaking industry, in the 'ghost net' trailings of the commercial fishing industry, in the conflict laden tribal rent increases on Owl Island, and in the secret past of her protagonist. Coburn is a strong story teller, and intellectually honest in the details which shape her characters. When Phoebe shaves her legs to please her man, Coburn's rebellious, independent heroine humerously embodies the all too human foibles of young love.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Owl Island by Randy Sue Coburn, July 4, 2006

By	Sherry Shapiro "Heavy duty reader" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've just gone on a suspenseful,romantic ride in the reading of Randy Sue Coburn's Owl Island. This is about the life of Phoebe Allen as told in the present and of her past life with her first lover, the charismatic Whit Traynor. He and his new wife have bought a home on Owl Island where Phoebe and her daughter have lived for the past twenty-plus years. Phoebe, now forty, and Whit, in his sixties, have not spoken since their quarrel and parting and Phoebe is apprehensive as to their inevitable meeting on the island.
Ms Coburn is a masterful storyteller, the pacing, rhythm, and interweaving of the past and present is enhanced by the three dimensional secondary characters that accompany Phoebe through the story; Phoebe's daughter Laurienne and her boyfriend Cliff take us into the world of computer programers. Phoebe we see both as a lovesick teenager and, in maturity, a net-maker for fishing vessels. Phoebe's neighbor Ivan is a potter who shows us the world of fine art and how artists manage to get their work shown. Lastly, the world of movie making and script writing is what Whit does and Phoebe did with him. Even Whits' new wife Jasmine, who could easily become a two-dimensional character isn't as she takes us into the world of astrology and intuition.
This book is rich in good old fashion storytelling, character,and suspense. More for women than men, through the story you will learn about many things without effort as your eyes consume the pages, your brain wonders what will come next, and your heart beats a little faster as you, or at least I, come to love these characters and hope for a happy ending.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lifetime Lessons, July 8, 2006

By	Mimsi Milton (Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I loved this fast-paced book and recommended it to my daughter because it has bountiful lessons about valuable relationships, outgrowing youthful obsessions, speaking up for oneself, taking pride in one's work, and a host of other relevant issues. All this in a terrific read that's impossible to put down. A must for women of every generation!