Careful What You Wish for

A sensitive Southern woman takes decades to learn from her past and make a genuine family connection in this emotionally laden first novel. Leavening her narrative with touches of mysticism, Hermes explores the fragile aspect of love and how the neurotic fear of losing it can have disastrous consequences. Protagonist Eleanor Blackmar Cline sets the plot in motion when, in 1949, she asks her husband to bring his biracial mistress, Natalie, into their house, so that they can save the money he is committing to Natalie's support. It's as if by forcing herself to face the reality of his infidelity, she will somehow bring closure to their tenuous relationship. The event shakes up the gossipy Southern town of Liberty, where Eleanor's family has lived for generations and where her wayward mother's reputation has dogged Eleanor almost from birth. Natalie's spirited audacity moves Eleanor to a surprised and genuine liking: the two women develop a deep bond. From Natalie, Eleanor acquires the courage to free herself from her shaming legacy and her empty marriage to her insanely jealous and physically abusive husband. She flees to New York, returning 15 years later for her husband's funeral, when she must face her grown son and the woman he loves, and try to explain the past. Hermes displays courage in her emotional explorations, revealing her characters' complex motives in extensive dialogue and unobtrusive third-person prose, then leading them to discover for themselves that in order to love or be loved, they must allow themselves to become vulnerable. Her grasp of domestic joy and sadness, and her evocation of life in a small Southern town, add texture to this uplifting weeper. (June)