Things Unspoken [Hardcover]

Anitra Sheen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1999

The halcyon days of Los Angeles in the '50s are the seductive setting for this mesmerizing first novel. After her mothers death, four-year-old Jorie grows up with her two slightly older brothers and mostly absent physician father. As narrated with sardonic wit by an adult Jorie, the brothers become increasingly wild, while young Jorie becomes the central force holding the unorthodox household together. Although she treasures the little family time they share-walks in the golden Hollywood hills and dining with Errol Flynn-she gradually discovers that her father has a secret life with very threatening entanglements. As her father self-destructs, the strange-but-stable world she knows begins to unravel, and she enters into taboo sexual relationships that further undermine the family. An intense, vivid novel, Things Unspoken brings humor and insight to the tale of an unforgettable family. Anitra Sheen is an extraordinary new talent.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Sheen makes a strong debut with this moving, partly autobiographical, bittersweet coming-of-age story set in 50s Los Angeles. When four-year-old Jorie Mackinnons mother dies of polio, she faces an uncertain universe of two older brothers and a detached, impatient physician father. Her father imposes little order, and she and her brothers, though inadequately supervised by an endless series of housekeepers and babysitterssome mean, some inadequate, one an alcoholiclive an untamed life. Insecure about her lone-female status in a family of males, and terrified of losing the love of her remaining parent (emotionally absent as he may be), she learns at an early age the necessity of keeping stoically silent on certain subjects. As she approaches adolescence, however, she realizes that her father is harboring his own secrets. On a rare family trip to Canada, where Dr. MacKinnon was born, she discovers the reason he has been estranged from his own father for many years. Despite brief periods of a seemingly normal domestic environment, she becomes aware that he has another life involving associations with gangsters, parties with Errol Flynn, a first wife in China and liaisons elsewhere, and other dark secrets that threaten the familys already fragile foundation. Relating the narrative from the perspective of an adult Jorie, Sheen achieves the effect of intelligent observation without the threat of preciosity. The novel acquires a quiet, pervasive poignance as it dawns on Jorie that her family is not like other families, that her life is not the stuff of Father Knows Best, and that the absence of a mother can leave a daughter dangerously unmoored. Jories heartbreaking efforts to please a father who refuses to speak of love are affecting and her generous forgiveness of his self-absorption, neglect and fatal addiction provides for a tender, thoughtful ending that is both believably and mercifully uplifting.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Jorie, the gritty narrator of this first novel, comes of age in 1950s and 1960s Los Angeles with two older brothers and an increasingly distant father. Though her widowed father hires a string of housekeepers to help raise his children, none of them lasts more than a few monthsAthe children take pride in dispatching them quickly. For most of her childhood, Jorie has no stable mother figure, and as the book unfolds, she realizes that her father cannot give her the love and approval she so terribly craves. But while her childhood is at times unstable, lonely, and painful, it is not altogether unhappy or boring. She helps her father in his medical practice, goes on adventures with her brothers, and eats dinner one evening with Errol Flynn and his daughter. As the book unfolds, however, Jorie learns hard lessons about herself and her family, about when to keep family secrets and when to reveal them, and about being self-reliant and independent. Sheen's writing is clear and unpretentious. Recommended.ALisa S. Nussbaum, Euclid P.L., OH
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Chronicle Books (May 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811823555
• ISBN-13: 978-0811823555
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,120,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HOW NOT TO RAISE CHILDREN..., May 16, 2002

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Things Unspoken (Hardcover)

Not that the parents depicted in this story are bad people -- this is not a story of abuse, but rather a story of parental ineptitude. The amazing thing about it -- and this is amazing when it occurs in 'real life' as well -- is the resilience of the children involved, how they wind up reaching down within themselves to draw upon their common sense and inner strength in order to carry on.

The story is set in the early to mid 1950s in Los Angeles -- a simpler, more naive time, when the air was still clean enough not to send the residents into coughing fits. The MacKinnon family is made up of three children -- the narrator, Jorie, has two older brothers -- and a set of parents that apparently haven't a clue about raising children. I suppose we should give the mother the benefit of the doubt -- she dies of polio very early in the book, and she was evidently the glue that held everything together. With her gone, the father is about as hapless as they come. He's not stupid -- he's a respected doctor with several Hollywood luminaries among his patients -- but his ideas about letting his children learn from their mistakes and finding their own way, instead of offering them guidance, leads to one disaster after another.

More than a lack of guidance, it is Dr. MacKinnon's inability to express love to his children that hurts them the most, although Jorie seems to be the only one to admit it. There were times I felt that he completely lacked the ability to grasp the concept of love -- he repeatedly calls it an 'overused' word. His ideas of gender roles -- typical of the 50s, and, sadly, still in evidence today -- are stifling as well. He dumps every single household chore onto Jorie's shoulders -- 'women's work' he calls it, beneath the dignity of the 'men' of the house.

The author has chosen the perfect narrator in Jorie -- her outlook and views are the most stable of the household. As she watches her family disintegrate around her, she makes some very valid, poignant observations -- and she becomes more and more determined that there will be love in her life, that she will take the reins and be her own guide. Her determination and courage are inspiring -- and the voice given her by Ms. Sheen in a compelling and authentic one, never leeving me with the feeling that an adult was telling the story through the mouth of a child.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Flawless Storytelling, November 21, 2001

By 

J. Fercho (Calgary, AB. Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Things Unspoken (Paperback)

I love finding books like this. Things Unspoken is storytelling at it's best, simple and beautifully written. The story of three motherless children left to essentially fend for themselves while their physician father pursues his career and his 'things unspoken", is both heartbreaking and uplifting. Set in the 1950's and 60's, Jorie and her brothers experience a strange life, removed of friends and family, their closest mother figure an alcoholic housekeeper who eventually like the others must be sent away. Desperate for the approval and affection of their distant (and in today's perspective), negligent father, each child must find their own way to deal with the hand they have been dealt. This novel could have been weepy and melodramatic, but it is neither. The author does not pursue the "dysfunction of the week" route, she tells us the story and allows the reader to watch what unfolds. This is a superb novel. There is a reason the reviewers are all giving it 5 stars. Read it now!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unusual and Inspiring family saga, December 6, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Things Unspoken (Paperback)

Anitra Sheen's "Things Unspoken" beautifully explains and portrays the range of human emotions and adaptive behaviors of children and adults in their individual "family" settings. In a read I found hard to put down from beginnning to end, I was fascinated by the characters "decision making" as their lives progressed.

For those New Yorkers and everyone cpativated by "Angela's Ashes", "Things Unspoken" is a must read!! You will laugh, cry, be shocked, but most all be inspired by the resilency of the human spirit in both children and adults. You constantly watch the struggle of good and evil being played out based on the life decisions people make! I applaud Jorie in the end--for making a truly difficult and correct "life" decision. She could take the easy way out--but doesn't and the reader knows her life will be better for it.

Ms. Sheen is a great storyteller and I anxiously await her next book.