Wednesday, January 13, 2010

A-Z Wednesday: White Picket Fences by Susan Meissner


The chilled air inside the Tucson funeral chapel suppressed the punishing heat outside. Amanda shivered as she took a seat on the metal chair.

Title: White Picket Fences
Author: Susan Meissner
ISBN: 9781400074570

Publisher: WaterBrook Press/2009
Pages: 350

When sixteen-year-old Tally's father disappears, and her grandmother dies in Tucson, his sister Amanda Janvier takes her with her to San Diego. Tally has always led an unconventional life with her father, in unusual places. Amanda thinks that a settled life would be welcomed by Tally after all that wild living. Amanda and her husband Neil, along with their two children might be able to give Tally a normal life. Tally tries to resist the move as she knows that her father will come back for her. She doesn't want to tell anyone where he has gone.

Amanda's son Chase has those recurring dreams about a fire when he was a 4-year-old. His parents had long assumed that he has forgotten about it and they are shocked that he has not. When Chase and Tally end up doing a project that involves two Holocaust survivers, more family secrets seem to tumble out. Amanda and Neil's perfect life seems to crumble around them. Tally seems to be in the midst of all this. And everyone start questioning themselves and each other. When the truth comes out, it affects everyone's life.

Tally, in her own way, tries to help everyone to find and face the truth. Her faith in her father doesn't diminish. Although everyone is sceptical about him, she knows he will come back for her. His reasons of leaving her for a while might be incomprehensible for Amanda but Tally beieves in him. Through her, Amanda comes to know her brother, who despite his unconventional upbringing of Tally, loves and cares for his daughter and also cares about the past and its effect on the present and future. And in that we find true treasure.

Right from page one, this book keeps our interest alive. It deals with issues which plague all of us at one time or the other. Ignoring any thing that has happened in the past can't make it go away. We have to face it and deal with it or it will come back and haunt us almost destroying our lives. And when we do deal with it, it brings us unexpected treasure and untold pleasure.

14 comments:

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

This sounds like a very good book; i enjoyed your review.

BTW...I love your new photo (very pretty) :)

Beth said...

One day I'm going to eventually get around to reading this. Here is my "W" book.

Sandra said...

This sounds quite interesting. And I enjoyed reading your thoughts on it. I'll consider reading it.
My A-Z post is up.

Laurel-Rain Snow said...

Wow, this book sounds captivating!

My post is here:

http://weboftyranny.blogspot.com/2010/01/z-wednesday_13.html

Zia said...

This sounds like a great read. I'll have to check it out sometime.

Nise' said...

Got this on my list as well.

Anonymous said...

Great review. And the cover is beautiful.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a wonderful book. thanks for sharing.

Kristen said...

Definitely interesting sounding.

Anonymous said...

Putting this on my Wish List!

Thanks for playing!

jlshall said...

Interesting. Sounds like a great read. And I love the cover!

Irene said...

Thanks for stopping by, and for a great review, my list grows.

Wrighty said...

Great selection, I enjoyed this book. It has a nice cover too. This is such a fun meme!

Anna said...

You've made me really want to know about the family secrets!

--Anna
Diary of an Eccentric