Review by Booklist Review
If Tilly's name rings a bell, it's as an actress, not a writer. Best known for her role in Agnes of God, Tilly will appear in a forthcoming film and is currently in a new dramatic television series. What sort of writer is she? Deceptively simplistic. Her first novel is a quick and episodic tale that takes place over the course of several years in the life of Anna, the very young and, ultimately, extremely brave and resilient narrator. Initially, Tilly's attempt at articulating the mind of a child seems contrived and cute, but suddenly the reality of Anna's world hits us hard, and we realize that this flat tone of voice is a form of protection a distancing if you will. This is Tonya Harding country, the scrabbly backwoods of the Northwest, circa 1969. A divorced mother of four, Anna's mom is eager to remarry, but second husband Richard is no godsend. He has three children of his own and is a complete lout. They are poor, sloppy, dissolute people, and every child in their grubby household suffers from hunger, neglect, and physical and sexual abuse. As disturbing as the scenes of outright cruelty are, it's the subtler moments that reveal the wretchedness of their life, such as when Anna watches her mother pretend, in front of neighbors or social workers, to be "concerned like a normal mother." But Anna is tough and bighearted, and like most children, capable of joy under fire. Her ability to see beyond the squalor of her home is her ticket out, and she epitomizes our gift for transcendence. (Reviewed Apr. 15, 1994)0525937781Donna Seaman
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Sometimes creativity blesses twice: Tilly, an actress best known for her portrayal of Chloe, the luminous young lover of the recent suicide in The Big Chill , has written an impressive first novel. Fashioned in short, cinematic vignettes, the story is related from Anna's bravely innocent point of view, which expands as she grows from a preschooler to a preteen. Anna lives with her large family in a variety of squalid locations, finally settling on an island in the Northwest. Her Radcliffe-educated mother, deserted by her well-to-do husband, has become a careless slut; she has married an older man who turns out to be a ``layabout,'' a child-beater and -molester. Anna's many siblings, blood and step, try to make it against these terrible odds, while Anna herself struggles unsuccessfully to cushion them from her stepfather's brutality and lechery, fiercely tries to protect herself from a number of sexual assaults and attempts to wrest some comfort from her overwrought mother. The young girl finds solace in the natural world: in a pet fawn who briefly lives in the bathroom and in baby owls who ride her shoulders. She revels in having her own room (a pantry closet) and proudly learns to shoplift. In retaining Anna's artless and natural voice, Tilly gives her credibility. Anna's clear-eyed perspective, generous nature and fighting spirit will make readers wish her success--but the novel's irresolute, troubling ending hardly promises a brighter future. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The Academy Award-nominated actress tells the story of a young girl whose family is constantly on the move. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Set in the Northwest in the mid-1960s, this disappointing debut novel by actress Tilly chronicles an abusive family from the point of view of one of the daughters. Anna, the second oldest of four children, is five years old when her harried mother, Jean, unwisely marries Richard Smith. He quickly brings his three children from another marriage for Jean to take care of; the growing family must struggle to stay out of poverty as, predictably, boorish Richard stops working and starts drinking. From there he sinks into a sexually abusive relationship with the girls, culminating in repeated rapes of Susan, Anna's older sister. This twisted situation is unconvincingly conveyed, right down to Jean's willful ignoring of her husband's continuing attacks on Susan. The day-to-day details of Anna's life overwhelm the fragile plot; instead of deepening our knowledge of her character, they only numb us to the real pain of the novel--the horror of abuse and deception. Tilly strives for the innocent yet knowing tone of a young girl, but Anna's voice is merely tiresome with its affected countryisms and deliberately cutesy grammatical errors. This, coupled with a vocabulary too advanced for her age (at five she uses words like ``nutrients'' and ``underbidding''), makes her a completely unreliable narrator. Neither Anna's uneven journey to a sense of self nor the painful story of a self-destructive family are successfully realized in this claustrophobic and unsurprising novel.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
