Customer Reviews

Twilight Child

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Warren Adler's "Twilight Child" is a heartfelt novel. It could break your heart, but yet some parts feel really contrived, and almost all the main characters do something boneheaded. In this novel, a woman with some self-esteem issues finds love with her boss after she is widowed. She eventually finds enough strength in herself to move on and remarry, but she also takes her son out of the lives of her dead husband's parents. A couple years pass, and the grandparents decided to sue to try to get visitation, and the courtroom drama starts as the judge has to weigh the law against human emotion, and find a solution that is fair.

The untimely death of her husband, Chuck Waters, in an oil-drilling rig accident should have filled his widow, Frances, with despair. Or so thought his grieving parents, Charlie and Molly Waters. But Frances, abandoned by her husband for months at a time and left to raise their child Tray on her own, feels relieved and free. Newly married to engineer Peter Graham, Frances wants to put her bad memories of her first marriage behind her and go on with life in her new family. But where does that leave Tray?

Frances insists that all contact be temporarily severed between Tray and his Waters grandparents. Peter is adopting him and his parents will become Tray's paternal grandparents. It's only temporarily, she assures Charlie and Molly, until Tray has adjusted to his new situation. But Charlie and Molly, distraught at the death of their only child, long for visits with their only living blood descendant.

Desperate for visitation rights with Tray, Charlie and Molly go to court. They have a chance, says their lawyer. They live in a state which allows visits by grandparents if the court rules that they are "in the best interests of the child." But Peter has legally adopted Tray, and Charlie and Molly didn't contest the adoption. Legally, Charlie and Molly are no longer Tray's grandparents.

Troubled that the judge might rule that allowing Charlie and Molly to visit is in Tray's best interests, and pregnant again with Peter's child, Frances is upset at the prospect of a prolonged court battle. But she will not change her mind. Tray is her child and she resents interference from others over how she will raise him.

How will the judge rule?

The reader's heart nearly breaks during the sections about Charlie's retirement, and his and Molly's feeling disconnected from their power sense of family. But the lonely Frances, abandoned by her irresponsible first husband and his wanderlust, who has now found happiness and security in her new marriage, arouses compassion and empathy as well. Above all, the reader wants to know how Tray is doing with all the fighting in the background of his life. So does the judge, which brings about the resolution of the story. It's a powerful portrayal of four adults who can't stop loving the child that links them all.