Leftover Dreams - Hardcover

Allen's 27th novel details the generally unremarkable lives of two Canadian sisters, from their miserable Toronto childhood to one sibling's success in London as the owner of a chain of copy shops: a ho-hum Cinderella tale in which the bad guys may be repulsive, but the good guys are fatally dull. Since her early 20s, when her husband abandoned her with two young children to raise, Maggie--Faye and Louise Parker's beautiful mother--has hated men. Depending for emotional gratification on sporadic trysts with her boss at the Toronto umbrella factory where she works, Maggie works out the rest of her frustration by verbally and physically abusing her intelligent, well-behaved daughters. Still, Faye and Louise manage to hang onto their self-respect until their teen years, when, as Maggie takes up a more lucrative career as a call girl, the sisters flee to the welcoming arms of their saintly grandmother. Unfortunately, though, the rescue proves too late for Faye: the sensitive girl's dreams of a quiet home and family with her longtime boyfriend, Raffie, are forever destroyed when Faye dies of a botched, illegal abortion. Grief-stricken and virtually alone at age 18, Louise strikes out for London to put her miserable past behind her, but finds she can't enjoy her own brighter fate--a close circle of friends, success in business, and the love of a middle-aged obstetrician--until she's solved the mystery of Faye's pregnancy and death, and made peace with the powerful forces in her past. Bland, sensible characters and endless pages of descriptive detail smother the plot's dramatic potential. Leftover dreams, in this case at least, don't make for a satisfying meal. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

On a grand scale but to uneven effect, Allen ( Painted Lives ) tells of two sisters and their travails, tragedies and triumphs. Quiet and frail Faye and charmingly spirited Louise grow up in Toronto in the 1940s and '50s, blamed by their bitter mother for her imperfect life. With the help of their grandmother, the teenage girls escape their mother's mental and physical abuse and move into a place of their own, seeming none the worse for their experiences, although closer than most sisters. When Faye dies of a botched abortion after being raped, 18-year-old Louise moves to London in order to flee her memories. There she creates a new life, making friends and starting a public relations business. But to find--and accept--happiness and love, Louise must journey back to her roots and answer questions raised by Faye's death. The first part of this ambitious novel, describing the girls' childhood, is repetitious, the action attenuated and Faye's characterization one-dimensional. But the pace picks up when Louise moves to London, and her touching, brave search for self-knowledge is both stirring and satisfying. 50,000 first printing; major ad/promo; BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.