{"id":934,"date":"2018-12-31T14:46:18","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=934"},"modified":"2018-12-31T14:46:18","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:46:18","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-96","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=934","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book ReviewsBy Michelle Newby, NBCCContributing Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby<\/span> is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews<\/span> and Foreword Reviews, <\/span>writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine,<\/span> and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/span>LITERARY FICTION<\/p>\n

Kathy Hepinstall<\/span><\/p>\n

The Book of Polly: A Novel<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Pamela Dorman Books<\/p>\n

Hardcover, 978-0-3995-6209-9, (also available as an e-book and on Audible), 336 pgs., $26.00<\/p>\n

March 14, 2017<\/p>\n

\u2018\u201cNo one calls my daughter a liar,\u201d [Polly] said, leaning on the word in a way that made me miserable because I was, in fact, a liar. And I had told some lies\u2014and even worse, some truths\u2014about my mother to my classmates. In my defense, she was great fodder, and this was years before she killed our neighbor.\u2019<\/p>\n

In a small town outside of Houston, Texas, <\/span>Pauline \u201cPolly\u201d Perkins Havens, a fifty-eight-year-old widow, gives birth to a little girl, Willow, eight months after the sudden death of her husband. Never knowing her father and not really knowing her much older siblings, Willow is terrified Virginia Slims\u2013smoking, margarita-aficionado Polly will die before Willow can get to know her (\u201cIt ruined the feel of guinea-pig fur and the crunchiness of popcorn\u201d), leaving Willow unmoored in the world. Feeling cheated of her family and pressed for time, Willow is obsessed with learning Polly\u2019s secrets (\u201cThe story was a blank stare and I wanted it to blink\u201d). And Polly, having escaped her past in the swamps of Louisiana, does have secrets.<\/p>\n

The Book of Polly: A Novel<\/span> is Kathy Hepinstall\u2019s<\/span> smart, clever, sardonically hilarious, and moving story of the relationship between a mother and a daughter. A woman graces the cover of The Book of Polly<\/span> wearing a strawberry-red skirt suit reminiscent of Jackie Kennedy, with impeccable hair and makeup, holding a garden trowel, a falcon perched on her shoulder. That\u2019s right, I said a falcon; all will become clear.<\/p>\n

The Book of Polly<\/span> proceeds at a steady pace, not cluttered up with extraneous storylines. Hepinstall\u2019s word choice is precise, her phrasing often a delightful surprise (\u201cIn my mind the worst-case scenario loped along like a runaway spaniel, leash trailing, enjoying its freedom and eluding all pursuers\u201d). Hepinstall\u2019s characters are quirky and complex; Polly is a bundle of inexplicable contradictions, like most of us, but mysteriously so to a child. It doesn\u2019t help that Polly and Willow are a lot alike. Willow\u2019s first-person narration, reflecting the imperfect understanding of a child, lends to the mystery.<\/p>\n

Hepinstall\u2019s dialogue will have you laughing aloud. Here Polly and Willow are discussing a dinner party during which Polly will try to charm the neighbors into helping pay for their shared backyard fence:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cJesus says in the Bible to make friends with your enemies and turn the other cheek and really try the nice way first to get them to go in on a fence.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t remember that particular verse,\u201d [Willow] said.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWell, maybe you should stop daydreaming about that Dalton boy in church, sassy brat.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is something classic about The Book of Polly,<\/span> with the garden symbolizing time. \u201cTime kept passing and passing no matter what we did. It had slid inside my training bra and made my breasts grow,\u201d Willow says. \u201cIt had killed the eggplant crop and given birth to the peppers. It was, at this very moment, under my mother\u2019s scarf, pulling up hairs like garden weeds.\u201d I\u2019m reminded of Anne Tyler<\/span> or Jane Smiley,<\/span> but with Jonathan Tropper\u2019s<\/span> sharper edge. Think Larry McMurtry\u2019s<\/span> Terms of Endearment,<\/span> think Steel Magnolias.<\/span> Note that Shirley MacLaine<\/span> starred in both movies.<\/p>\n

Y\u2019all go hug your mothers.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Newby is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews and Foreword Reviews, writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine, and The Collagist. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}