Some Things That Stay (Paperback)

by Sarah Willis (Author) "We move each year in spring, like birds migrating, except we don't go back to a familiar place..." (more)
Key Phrases: couch picture, hydrangea bush, New York City, Sarah Willis, Audrey Hepburn (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The deceptively quiet voice that inhabits this intelligent and moving first novel belongs to Tamara Anderson, 15 years old in 1954, who comes of age within an unconventional family that's struggling in an era of social conformity. Her father is a landscape painter, so the family (including Tamara's younger siblings, Robert, 11, and Megan, seven) moves every year, living in furnished houses from Georgia to Idaho to Maine, owning only what can fit in a trailer. Stuart and Liz, Tamara's parents, met when Liz modeled nude for art classes, with Stuart defying his family to marry the woman who had flirted with the Communist Party. Now they are determined to bring up their children as atheists, teaching them evolution and carefully explaining sexuality and reproduction. The '50s era, with its shadow of Moral Rearmament, is vividly evoked with references to Davy Crockett hats, the generalized fear of a Communist conspiracy and the atom bomb, as Tamara's perceptions of her new home in upstate rural New York drive the narrative. She explores her new school, and religion and sexuality with the boy across the street, juxtaposing her need for stability against her family's transient life. When Liz becomes seriously ill with tuberculosis, the Anderson family is weighted with fear, sadness and uncertainty of a kind entirely new to them. Willis deftly balances her depiction of the domestic unit: vulnerable Tamara correctly believes no one is listening to her, and knows that in Stuart's life, art ranks above his children. Liz and Stuart are devoted to each other, and are alternately selfish and caring parents; their idiosyncrasies, such as overrationalized reckless styles of driving the family car, suggest larger problems. Not a seamless tale, the narrative is hampered by a few stale patches of exposition, but overall, Tamara's uncommonly lucid, honest and expansive view marks this as a luminous, impressive debut. (Feb.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
It's 1954, and 15-year-old Tamara Anderson is searching for a place to call home. Her father, a landscape artist who is always looking for new challenges, moves his family to a new state each year. When they get to rural New York, however, the family starts to unravel. Tamara's mother, a strong woman who preaches atheism to her three children, comes down with tuberculosis and is sent to a sanatorium. Meanwhile, the children are drawn to the tattered family across the road. Rusty teaches Tamara about sex, and his church-going older sister Helen fascinates Tamara's younger siblings. Willis's writing is clear and fresh, capturing the emotional edge of childhood and the search for home in one's heart. A bit like a Northern Kaye Gibbons, Willis tells a coming-of-age story that is tender and moving. A first novel worth reading; recommended for public libraries.
-Beth Gibbs, P.L. of Charlotte & Mecklenburg Cty., NC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (May 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425179605
• ISBN-13: 978-0425179604
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,380 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Coming of Age Story, December 9, 2001

By	karolinatx (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews

I flew through Some Things That Stay, vacillating between a tear in my eye and a smile on my face. It's a poignant novel, set in the 1950's, chronicling a few months in the life of a teen girl who is desperately trying to find herself in a world which seems to be constantly changing. Tamara's father is a painter, and he moves his wife and three children on a yearly basis in order to find new subject matter for his paintings. The book begins with the family's move to rural New York state, and just as things seem to be settling down for Tamara, her whole life is thrown into turmoil again, from a source she never would have expected.

I can't wait to get my hands on another Sarah Willis novel. This one was written with so much wisdom and understanding about the truly important things in life - your family, your relationships with others, your sense of self. Thanks very much to the amazon.com reader who including this gem in their listmania list!

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars exquisite, resonant and elegant coming-of-age novel, October 27, 2000

By	Bruce J. Wasser (Lake Bluff, IL) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Some Things That Stay (Hardcover)

The truth of the matter is that Sarah Willis' "Some ThingsThat Stay" should be rated much higher than five stars. It isone of the most powerful and affecting works of fiction I have read inrecent years. Thematically rich, with characters who are so real youimagine them sitting with you as you read, the novel literallyembraces us with the almost desperate ambivalence and profoundemotional tensions the compelling protagonist, Tamara Anderson, feels.That this is Ms. Willis' first novel makes the achievement all themore stunning. Rest assured, this work will find its way on therequired reading lists of both secondary and university readinglists.

In a seamless fashion, Sarah Willis has managed to convey thelife of an anachronistic family in the mid-1950s with accuracy andempathy. In an era which celebrated conventional nuclear families,the Andersons are peripatetic wanderers, the journeys fueled by afather whose need for fresh landscapes to fuel his painting requiresthe family to move from house to house each spring. Indeed,Ms. Willis explores the definitions of family and home throughout,both in her evocation of place and her contrasting the Andersons withtheir cross-street neighbors. These neighbors, whosereligion-centered lives contrast with the rational/scientific mind ofTamara's mother, provide both ballast and turmoil to Tamara'sworld-views.

In addition to the author's sensitive treatment of theaforementioned themes, she is at her very best in dealing with thewrenching illness of Tamara's mother and the protagonist's discoveryof her own body and growing awareness of herself as a sexual being.The descriptions of Tamara and her partner-in-discovery, Rusty, arealone worth the reading of the novel. Ms. Willis poses many seriousquestions: What is the best way for a family to handle medicaltragedy? What responsibility to parents have in guiding theirchildren? How do children accept the loss of a parent? What is themeaning of "home" in the life of a family? What is thenature of belief?

It is my hope to meet the author some day and topersonally thank her for this work. Sarah Willis will emerge as oneof our nation's most eloquent and wise interpreters; I anxiously awaither next novel.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical and precise, February 1, 2000

By	Maureen F. McHugh (Twinsburg, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Some Things That Stay (Hardcover)

Fourteen year old Tamara has lived in a different house every year, with only her parents and her brothers as constants. Lying in bed in a room in a farmhouse where a year before a boy has died of leukemia she thinks about how heartbroken that boy's parents (and her family's current landlords) seem. Describing her parent's marriage, she says, "I try to imagine my parents without us kids. I can." I love this story of a girl who feels wild and honest. Sarah Willis writes with poetry and clarity. She cuts to the bones of feeling.