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THE DROWNING TREE
by Carol Goodman
Ballantine Books, June 2004
352 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0345462114


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Juno McKay, the narrator of this story, had nearly drowned 14 years before. She had not seen her husband Neil for 13. She and her daughter, Bea, 15, live in an old glass factory in small town in New York state. Nearby is the exclusive Penrose College founded by Eugenie and Augustus Penrose out of a craft league for the wives and daughters of the men who worked in the factories.

Juno had to leave college before she graduated to get married and have her daughter. Now her class is having its 15th reunion and her best friend Christine Webb is giving a talk about the stained glass window in the library, made in Augustus's stained glass shop and now about to be restored as the class gift. Juno and her father do glass restoration.

Christine reveals some unknown facts about the window and asks some questions which might be embarrassing for the college president, the grandson of the Penroses. Then Juno puts her on the train and Christine disappears.

While the quest for what happened to Christine is important, the novel really focuses on Juno, what has happened in her life, and how the events of these few months in some ways transform her and in some ways seem to heal her. Character development is wonderful. Every character is three-dimensional and believable. While we are uncertain who to trust and who to fear, that is because there is good and bad in every person and we are never sure, right away, which side will win. There are even two marvelous greyhounds who have qualities of their own that we will appreciate.

Goodman's writing is beautiful. I can think of no other word to describe it. It is a pleasure to read, it draws the reader in and leads her through the story, it never intrudes and it never annoys.

Water permeates the book. It is the flowing of water that carries the action and that produces the events. The stained glass window pictures a woman by a brook flowing into the river. There is a marvelous sunken sculpture garden of statues beneath the water. Bea, Juno's daughter, nearly lives on the water and Juno, while frightened of it, is learning to trust it. The water may kill, it may cleanse, and it may reveal.

Art is also integral to the story. The Penroses were supporters of the pre-Raphaelite movement and their art work reflected that. Juno's husband was a renowned artist and Christine an art historian. Juno's' work with stained class is, of course, art in itself. And the wonderful paintings done by Augustus Penrose that adorn the president's home depict legends of women being turned into water trees or drowned.

There are twists and turns to the plot and, until the very end, you will not be sure who is a hero and who a villain. There are secrets to be told and some to be kept. There is a parallel story of a hundred years before, a star-crossed trio, and another from 15 years earlier. There is action, beauty, word pictures so breathtaking that you gaze in wonderment, and, at the heart of it all, a courageous intelligent woman who learns she can take her life back.

Reviewed by Sally Fellows, August 2004

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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