Water Wings [Hardcover]

Kristen Den Hartog (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2004

The seedy underbelly of small-town life is exposed in Water Wings, Kristen den Hartog’s exuberant first novel, but beauty grows out of the decay and dark secrets. Beautiful, vamp-ish Darlene is getting married again, to shoe-store Reg, a man tied to the family in ways few of them realize. Darlene’s grown daughters, Vivian and Hannah, are home for the wedding. Along with their cousin Wren, born with deformed hands and an angelic nature, they revisit the landscape of their childhood: the sinister river that swallowed their father, the forest that seethes with insects. Together they unearth both buried truths and the strange resiliency of love.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in a small town in Ontario, this delicately wrought family drama opens as Darlene Olepke, mother to Vivian and Hannah, prepares for her wedding to Reg Sinclair, the shoe store man. Vivian and Hannah's father, Mick, died in a tragic water-skiing accident many years ago, and since then Darlene has depended on a string of men for support. However, her inexplicable marriage to Reg, "a large pale man with a perm," dredges up memories and questions for Darlene's family. Darlene's two very different daughters, sharp-witted Vivian and dreamy Hannah, each narrate chapters, as do Angie, Darlene's practical sister, and Wren, Angie's deformed but sensitive daughter. Wren, sensitive to small wonders, draws parallels between human relations and the natural world-particularly the fragile and beautiful insects that inhabit the surrounding Ontario forests-that become increasingly relevant as darker truths about the town emerge. Despite the fine-grained loveliness of Hartog's prose, the novel suffers from a lack of focus, none of the characters crystallizing into distinct, memorable creations. The narrative swings freely from past to present and back again, sweeping memories of sticky summers and lost dreams in its wake. This patchwork construction, along with erratic pacing, decreases the tension and appeal of what is otherwise a beautifully rendered tale.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Beguiling and beautiful Darlene Oelpke attracts men the way a lightning rod attracts electricity. Since she lacks the will to turn them away, her life has been an eventful one. Her story begins with her daughter Hannah driving back into their rural Canadian town to attend Darlene's second marriage. The point of view switches among her female relatives: daughters Hannah and Vivian, sister Angie, and niece Wren. As the four prepare for the ceremony, their flashbacks and musings disclose the present by circling in on events from their common past. Along the way, we see how death and betrayal, buried cruelties, and the fallibility of memory shaped the five women's lives. Vivid cinematic descriptions, epigrammatic phrasing, and the adroit use of dialogue distinguish the writing and provide vivid portraits of the five women. The ending of this impressive novel artfully refers back to the book's beginning, provides no easy answers, and closes the story with hope. Ellen Loughran
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Hardcover: 269 pages
• Publisher: Macadam Cage Pub (February 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931561613
• ISBN-13: 978-1931561617
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,058,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars talented new canadian author, April 4, 2003

By 

camm - See all my reviews

This review is from: Water Wings (Hardcover)

Water Wings is a beautiful journey into childhood and three children's understanding of the adult world. Vivien - the realist with a razor-sharp intelligence, Wren - Vivien's cousin who was born with webbed hands and the natural sensibility of a dryad, and Hannah - Vivien's sister, a child who lives in a world of her own, who sees the days of the week in different colours, and for whom memory is a fluid, ephemeral thing. Through these three Water Wings explores the relationship of Vivien and Hannah's beautiful mother Darlene and their father Mick.
Den Hartog conjures up the beauty of the wild Ontario landscape in vivid colour and captures the fragility and poignancy of childhood innocence.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very highly recommended and entertaining reading, August 10, 2004

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Water Wings (Hardcover)

Still vampish and beautiful, Darlene Oelpke is getting married again. This time it's to Reg, shoe-store man who is associated with the family in some ways most of them aren't yet aware of. Vivian and Hannah are Darlene's adult daughters and are home for the wedding along with their cousin Wren who was born with deformed hands and an angelic nature. Together, Vivian, Hannah, and Wren revisit the sinister river where Darlene's husband was lost. They also discover distrubingly hidden secrets and the enduring survival power of love. Kristen Den Hartog is an imaginative, skilled, and "reader engaging" author. Very highly recommended and entertaining reading, Water Wings is her second novel and clearly establishes her as a first write writer that will leave her readers looking eagerly toward her next title.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book, March 16, 2003

By 

Julie (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Water Wings (Hardcover)

This is definately one of my favourite books of all time. I could not put it down. It was easy to read and I always wanted to turn the page to see what strange twist would happen next. The story is about three girls, Hannah, Vivian and Wren, and how they grew up in a small town with slightly dysfunctional families. This book is beautifully written and I would recommend it to anybody who loves reading!