Customer Reviews

Parting Gifts

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I must say that, again, Charlotte Vale Allen has reached my heart. I feel so close to the main characters that I feel like I truly know them. Being a widow myself at a young age, I have had so many of the same feelings that the main character had. I don't know how the author can have such feeling for and understanding of her without having been there herself. She weaves such a complicated and heart warming plot. I feel like she is actually telling me the story.

I have read a number of Charlotte Vale Allen's novels, and this is up there with the best of them, deserving to rank with Mood Indigo. The reader is involved emotionally--intensely, but without maudlin sentimentality. This is achieved through the very skilful treatment of the characters; they are so deftly drawn that one believes in them and cares about what happens to them, even the minor ones. Children are presented as real human beings; the boy Jesse, in particular, is movingly convincing and ultimately heroic. Kyra, the central character, is seen developing through growth in self-knowledge; this can be seen as the great theme of the whole novel. I don't mean to suggest that everything comes up roses for everyone, or that all the characters are charming feel-good types. There is a convincingly cold-blooded surgical technocrat, obviously drawn from life, who reminds me forcibly of some--by no means all--high-powered medical people I have encountered, and the immoral world of chequebook journalism is scathingly displayed. Parting Gifts is far from a preachy novel, but it looks honestly and compassionately at life and takes the side of authenticity and integrity against sneering arrogance and pretentiousness. It expands one's awareness, so that the reader is drawn into sharing the painful but necessary development of the sympathetic characters.

Charlotte Vale Allen's latest novel, Parting Gifts, catches and holds your attention from the very first page. Kyra Latimer has just lost her huband, Gary, in an accident. Still reeling from the trageedy and the funereal, she returns to her apartment to find a young girl and an obviously neglected three year old in the lobby of her building, demanding to see her. Kyra has no idea who they are and is stunned when the girl, Jennifer claims that Kyra is her mother, Jesse her grandchild, and that she wants to Kyra to raise Jesse or she'll turn him over to foster care. Kyra agrees to take the child, and a marvelous story unfolds.

Charlotte writes very convincingly of the challenges of raising a child who has been abused and neglected. Jesse is a character that you won't soon forget, an enchanting, wise beyond his years little boy, who thanks to the love and nurturing of Kyra and her family is able to learn to love and trust. The end of this book was heartwrenching. Both the characters and their stories will stay with you long after you've finished reading the book.

I have read all 35 of Charlotte's books, and after each one have said that this is her best work so far. I had the same reaction at the end of Parting Gifts and urge everyone to read this book and any of the ones before it that you may have missed.

Kyra Latimer lost her husband to a freak accident in Manhattan. She is in deep shock and cannot imagine how she will ever cope without the husband she loved so much. Now their plans for adopting a child would be gone forever. Until one day.

A young woman appears out of the blue with a small boy in town. She says that she was the child Kyra gave up years ago, and that she is Jesse's grandmother. Kyra knows this isn't true at all, yet seeing the obvious neglect of the boy pulled at her heartstrings. Kyra agrees to keep Jesse then-and takes on an instant role as his mother.

Jesse is no ordinary child as it turns out though, and Kyra no ordinary mom. Jesse becomes ill later on with the worst possible challenge-kidney failure. It is then that Kyra is forced to confront an impossible choice, and that is whether to honor her son's decision on not receiving medical treatment to save his life.

A VERY absorbing book. I enjoyed every moment of reading it.

I enjoyed this book and would not hesitate to recommend to others.

From the opening line, "The concierge called to say two police officers wanted to speak to her," Charlotte Vale Allen holds your attention as we enter the world of Kyra Latimer. Kyra has to face reality and conditions that are not easy to accept and doesn't have an hourglass figure: she's fat, real. Sorry, this isn't Harlequin romance dribble. "Parting Gifts" is gut-wrenching, funny, and informative (I cried and laughed once in the same chapter). Kyra's friends and family are real as well. I didn't want the book to end. The book will embrace your heart and then smash your emotions as you keep reading, unable to do anything as the story unfolds. Just like in real life. This book is brilliant and takes you to a place that you soon won't forget. You will hate some characters and love others. I've been an avid reader of Charlotte Vale Allen for years and this book is a winner!

Charlotte Vale Allen engages the reader of Parting Gifts with a moving tale of the profits and losses of love. A family drama set mostly in late twentieth century London, Parting Gifts involves a theatrical extended family. Kyra, a large woman with a heart to match, first loses her pilot husband of 10 years in a hit-and-run accident outside their New York apartment. While she is mourning his loss, a young woman arrives on her doorstep with her "grandchild". Unable to have children, but anxious to build a family, Kyra adopts Jesse. Her three-year old son is temporarily mute, the victim of abuse and neglect. Kyra and Jesse move to London to welcome the support of her actress mother; director father; and twin actor brother. Kyra's costume design career flourishes as her son blossoms as a budding writer--published at age twelve. Allen involves the reader with the conflicts of a loving family and avoids the standard platitudes of love lost, while dealing with issues of abuse, death and serious illness. One hopes that this novel is not Allen's Parting Gifts for readers eager for more well-written tomes.

I've read all of Charlotte Vale Allen's books and this one is as good as the best. She is by far one of my favorite writers of all time. She doesn't write 'about' characters, she literally becomes the characters in the story. I loved the complex, unorthodox family relationships in this story...and the touching way the book ended. It left me crying, thinking and meditating on the value of life, no matter how short it might be.

I have read all Vale Allen's books and eagerly awaited latest. Upon finishing same I am left with cold and angry emotions. I found the characters pretentious (including their names)and the little tragic hero (the most unreal). I believe no one would accept a child that is thrown at them as Jesse is cast upon Kyra with the unlikely story of his parentage. Given the state of Kyra's bereavement and her inability to bear children; falling for the sluttish harridan who claimed to be her daughter is totally farfetched. The child's abilities as conveyed by his intelligence, acquiring own attorney, literary skills and fame and his eventual demise due to his 12 year old judgment of his illness and subsequent treatment with the crowning glory of his mother finding a naked lady in his bed to teach him about life while it slowly seeps away,are incredulous. Kyra's relationships with her family and her self-imposed obesity to offset so-called fame does not make too much sense. The characters' sense of wittiness and daily language is tedious and contrived and the whole plot belongs in some sort of far-off planet that has no bearing upon any sensible aspects of life . I feel very discouraged at having to vent such strong emotions for one of my favorites. If there is anyone out there who feels the same way, please communicate.

I love Charlotte's books (owning them all) and Parting Gifts kept me reading until the end. The main character, Kyra, learns about raising children on the "spur of the moment", as she adopts a small boy who is very wary of her and everyone else. This book is about choices, be it adult choices or childrens' choices. Charlotte is trying to make a point here and succeeds to the max.