Blossoms Meet the Vu

When Maggie's brother-in-law abandons his wife and newborn son, Maggie feels so betrayed that she turns her anger against all menparticularly against the rowdy boys at school and her distant, accomplished father. Maggie's disillusionment, in fact, is so plausibly drawn that by the time she begins to look at men more appreciatively as individuals, the resolution doesn't ring entirely true. While the first-person narrative is somewhat limiting, Maggie is an unusually sympathetic character. Her loving attention toward her nephew and her pain at having no influence over the adults in her family add poignancy to the story. (10-up)