Clarke, Kathryn Ann. The breakable vow.HarperCollins, Avon, 471p. c2004. 006-051821-9. $6.99. SA The clear intent of this novel, elaborated through an appendix of factual information and advice, is to demonstrate how insidious insidious /in·sid·i·ous/ (-sid´e-us) coming on stealthily; of gradual and subtle development. in·sid·i·ous adj. Being a disease that progresses with few or no symptoms to indicate its gravity. domestic violence can be and to offer a model for escaping it. Sadly, the lethal combination of great length, wooden dialog, cardboard characters, and peculiar lapses of credible background material militates against the book finding the readers who need or want it. Annie first meets her husband-to-be when they are in middle school. When she becomes pregnant the summer before their senior year in high school, they decide to marry. The young family moves from Chicago to Texas, where Kevin has a basketball scholarship that includes married-student housing. Kevin's emotional and then physical abuse of Annie escalates from apparently innocent moodiness in their early relationship through a full-on assault requiring hospitalization hospitalization /hos·pi·tal·iza·tion/ (hos?pi-t'l-i-za´shun) 1. the placing of a patient in a hospital for treatment. 2. the term of confinement in a hospital. by Christmas of their first year in Texas. It's difficult to pinpoint the time period of the setting: the teens have ready, and apparently legal, access to alcohol; Annie--clearly a caring and loving mother--smokes; they listen to records, rather than a newer recorded music recorded music n → música grabada format. More difficult are the theological and biological gaffes: in spite of being a good Catholic, Annie associates the Immaculate Conception Immaculate Conception In Roman Catholicism, the dogma that Mary was not tainted by original sin. Early exponents included St. Justin Martyr and St. Irenaeus; St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas were among those who opposed it. with Jesus' physical birth, rather than with the state of Mary's lack of original sin original sin, in Christian theology, the sin of Adam, by which all humankind fell from divine grace. Saint Augustine was the fundamental theologian in the formulation of this doctrine, which states that the essentially graceless nature of humanity requires redemption ; Annie and Kevin's baby is walking and eating solid foods by the time she's six months old without these feats seeming remarkable to any onlooker. Annie's emotions are, indeed, very realistic, both in their development and expression. The cavalier cavalier (kăv'əlĭr`), in general, an armed horseman. In the English civil war the supporters of Charles I were called Cavaliers in contradistinction to the Roundheads, the followers of Parliament. manner in which her friends suggest and Annie decides to use a gun may be realistic, but a little heart-stopping if Annie is meant to be a model for learning to deal with her problems appropriately. If only the prose flowed smoothly, all these problems would not detract from detract from verb 1. lessen, reduce, diminish, lower, take away from, derogate, devaluate << OPPOSITE enhance verb 2. the impact the story could have. However, with this added rhetorical issue, it's hard to believe readers will get through its 400plus pages to see how it's possible to get past a potentially deadly situation. Francisca Goldsmith, Teen Svcs., Berkeley P.L., Berkeley, CA |
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