Water Wings
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
The seedy underbelly of small-town life is exposed in 'Water Wings', Kristen den Hartog’s exuberant first novel, but beauty grows out of the decay and dark secrets. Beautiful, vampish Darlene is getting married again, to shoe-store Reg, a man tied to the family in ways few of them realize. Darlene’s grown daughters, Vivian and Hannah, are home for the wedding. Along with their cousin Wren, born with deformed hands and an angelic nature, they revisit the landscape of their childhood: the sinister river that swallowed their father, the forest that seethes with insects. Together they unearth both buried truths and the strange resiliency of love.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in a small town in Ontario, this delicately wrought family drama opens as Darlene Olepke, mother to Vivian and Hannah, prepares for her wedding to Reg Sinclair, the shoe store man. Vivian and Hannah's father, Mick, died in a tragic water-skiing accident many years ago, and since then Darlene has depended on a string of men for support. However, her inexplicable marriage to Reg, "a large pale man with a perm," dredges up memories and questions for Darlene's family. Darlene's two very different daughters, sharp-witted Vivian and dreamy Hannah, each narrate chapters, as do Angie, Darlene's practical sister, and Wren, Angie's deformed but sensitive daughter. Wren, sensitive to small wonders, draws parallels between human relations and the natural world particularly the fragile and beautiful insects that inhabit the surrounding Ontario forests that become increasingly relevant as darker truths about the town emerge. Despite the fine-grained loveliness of Hartog's prose, the novel suffers from a lack of focus, none of the characters crystallizing into distinct, memorable creations. The narrative swings freely from past to present and back again, sweeping memories of sticky summers and lost dreams in its wake. This patchwork construction, along with erratic pacing, decreases the tension and appeal of what is otherwise a beautifully rendered tale.
