Customer Reviews

The Watching Eyes (Original Title: The Winds of Time)

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This is about a young girl Gail who has been forced to go live with her uncle. Her mother is mentally ill and can't take care of her. Her father has been away for a time.

When there is an accident while her uncle is driving Gail decides to run away.

She happens upon a family who may be her salvation or not.

This book is timeless.

I read this years ago in the early 80s and just happen to find it when I was at a used bookstore.

Here is the blurb from the back cover:
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"Who is this strange family Gail has stumbled on in the middle of nowhere? Why have they befriended Gail so easily---no question asked? They seem to sense that she's in terrible trouble---and desperately needs a place to hide.

"Do they somehow know more about Gail than they're telling?"
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Well, today while clearing out an outbuilding, I happened upon a box of old Scholastic paperbacks from my childhood. I sorted the books into three piles---"give to charity," "pulp," and "keep"---but I still ended up with far more in the "keep" pile than any other. Uh-oh, I feel a fit of nostalgia coming on! I immediately pulled several from the pile to re-read at once.

The first one was 1974's "The Watching Eyes" (original title "The Winds of Time"), by Barbara Corcoran.

After Gail's mother is hospitalised for another spell of mental illness (I'm not sure what is wrong with the woman, exactly---don't know enough about the subject to be able to tell from the text), she is sent away to live with her rather sinister Uncle Chad. On the way to his home, Chad's on-the-road drinking results in an automobile accident and Gail used the opportunity to run away while he is incapacitated. Once she happens upon the marvellous mysterious mansion (a setting that is staple in YA lit!), the story really begins to unfold...

I'll call this one a "pleasant diversion"---nothing more and nothing less. Reading it as an adult, there are a couple of things that really don't quite ring true, however---situations that don't quite make logical sense. And looking at Gail's absentee father through adult eyes, I really can't regard him in nearly as positive a light as Gail---and apparently the author---do. I would have liked to have a few frank words with this fellow.

Interesting to see how the memory works... I had no recollection whatsoever of the plot and characters of this book, but the story contained a single inconsequential sentence that had remained in my memory all these years. Why I remembered that one trivial bit of the plot I have no idea! And I never would have been able to place that stray recollection, if I hadn't happened upon it accidentally with this re-read, nearly thirty years after I first read the book.

I quite like the artwork on the cover of this one, though I have to say the original title ("The Winds of Time") really makes no sense whatsoever. I can't see how it relates to the plot at all...

This is about a young girl Gail who has been forced to go live with her uncle. Her mother is mentally ill and can't take care of her. Her father has been away for some time and her uncle refuses to wait.

When there is an accident while her uncle is driving Gail decides to run away rather than be left alone with her uncle.

She happens upon a family who may be her salvation or not.
She is unsure of their intentions.

This book is timeless.

I read this years ago in the early 80s and just happen to find it when I was at a used bookstore.

I believe that the characters were well developed in that you knew who wasgood and who would rather do harm than to give a helping hand.