Baker's bangup debut mixes the exuberant eccentricities of John Irving's Garp
, Anne Tyler's relationship savvy and the plangent voice of Margaret Atwood. In an upstate New York backwater, Truly, massive from birth, has a bleak existence with her depressed father and her china-doll–like sister, Serena Jane. Truly grows at an astonishing rate—her girth the result of a pituitary gland problem—and after her father dies when Truly is 12, Truly is sloughed off to the Dyersons, a hapless farming family. Her outsize kindness surfaces as she befriends the Dyersons' outcast daughter, Amelia, and later leaves her beloved Dyerson farm to take care of Serena Jane's husband and son after Serena Jane leaves them. Haunting the margins of Truly's story is that of Tabitha Dyerson, a rumored witch whose secrets afford a breathtaking role reversal for Truly. It's got all the earmarks of a hit—infectious and lovable narrator, a dash of magic, an impressive sweep and a heartrending but not treacly family drama. It'll be a shame if this doesn't race up the bestseller lists. (Jan.)
Details
Reviewed on: 09/08/2008
Genre: Fiction
Analog Audio Cassette - 978-1-4332-4693-7
Compact Disc - 10 pages - 978-1-4332-4695-1
Hardcover - 559 pages - 978-1-4104-1375-8
MP3 CD - 978-1-4332-4696-8
Open Ebook - 341 pages - 978-0-446-54334-7
Open Ebook - 186 pages - 978-0-446-59454-7
Other - 1 pages - 978-1-4332-4698-2
Paperback - 368 pages - 978-0-446-19422-8
Paperback - 352 pages - 978-0-340-91928-6
Pre-Recorded Audio Player - 978-1-4332-5648-6
