![Cover image for The underside of joy : [a novel]](/client/assets/5.1294/ctx//client/images/no_image.png "Cover image for The underside of joy : [a novel]")
Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... Salem Main Library | Halverson, S. | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
Set against the backdrop of Redwood forests and shimmering vineyards, Seré Prince Halverson's compelling debut tells the story of two women, bound by an unspeakable loss, who each claims to be the mother of the same two children.
To Ella Beene, happiness means living in the northern California river town of Elbow with her husband, Joe, and his two young children. Yet one summer day Joe breaks his own rule- never turn your back on the ocean -and a sleeper wave strikes him down, drowning not only the man but his many secrets.
For three years, Ella has been the only mother the kids have known and has believed that their biological mother, Paige, abandoned them. But when Paige shows up at the funeral, intent on reclaiming the children, Ella soon realizes there may be more to Paige and Joe's story. "Ella's the best thing that's happened to this family," say her close-knit Italian-American in-laws, for generations the proprietors of a local market. But their devotion quickly falters when the custody fight between mother and stepmother urgently and powerfully collides with Ella's quest for truth.
The Underside of Joy is not a fairy-tale version of stepmotherhood pitting good Ella against evil Paige, but an exploration of the complex relationship of two mothers. Their conflict uncovers a map of scars-both physical and emotional-to the families' deeply buried tragedies, including Italian internment camps during World War II and postpartum psychosis.
Weaving a rich fictional tapestry abundantly alive with the glorious natural beauty of the novel's setting, Halverson is a captivating guide through the flora and fauna of human emotion-grief and anger, shame and forgiveness, happiness and its shadow complement . . . the underside of joy.
Author Notes
SERÉ PRINCE HALVERSON lives in northern California and worked as a freelance copywriter for twenty years while she wrote fiction. She and her husband have four grown children. She is a mom and a stepmom, and grew up with a mom and a stepmom. This is her debut novel.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Fleeing a failed marriage, Ella Beene arrives in Elbow, Calif., where she meets Joe and his two children, abandoned four months ago by Paige, who suffered from postpartum depression. After a quick marriage, Ella's new life turns upside down after only three years when Joe drowns, leaving her a business deeply in debt and an ex-wife back in town intent on regaining custody of the children that Ella has come to love. A difficult custody battle results in Paige taking her children to Las Vegas. Ella follows, to be closer to the children, and the two women sustain a heated conflict until a terrible accident involving Zach, the youngest, makes them realize that they each care for these children deeply. Halverson paints a lovely picture of smalltown life and intimate family drama, creating sympathy for Ella, which is easy, but also for Paige, whose own troubled past complicates a figure that would ordinarily be demonized. Nuanced characters and a lack of cliche make for a winning debut. Agent: Weed Literary. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Halverson's debut novel marks her as a strong new voice in women's fiction. Three years after the death of her husband, young widow Ella Beene looks back at the joy of her early married life with the recognition that the most genuine happiness cannot be so pure, so deep, or so blind. What she has failed to see is that Joe might not have been completely honest about what went wrong with his first marriage. As the loving stepmother to his two children, Ella suddenly finds herself vulnerable to a custody suit from their mother, Paige. In addition, the Italian grocery business that Joe's family has run for decades in the quaint town of Elbow, California, is about to go under, and Ella must find a way to make a living. Halverson tells a complex story in agile prose, but her tale is awash in a full-throated emotionalism that aligns her more with Elizabeth Berg than the more nuanced Anita Shreve. Because of its focus on the meaning of family, this would make an excellent book-club choice.--Wilkinson, Joanne Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Ella Beene and Joe Capozzi fell into love and a joyful family life so easily that it seems that they had always been together. She and her first husband had split when all their efforts to have a baby failed. Meanwhile, Joe had been reeling from his abandonment by wife Paige, who left him with a three-year-old and an infant. Living in a small town in the California Redwoods, Joe and Ella made a living running the market that had been in the Capozzi family for generations. Three years into their blissful marriage, Joe's shocking death while pursuing his first love, photography, sets in motion the unraveling of all that Ella, her charming stepchildren, and Joe's family hold dear when the unthinkable happens: Paige reenters the picture wanting to claim her children. Ella, reeling from a series of stunning secrets that Joe kept from her, fights tooth and nail against grief, a failing store, and instant poverty to do right by the children who are her world. Verdict Halverson's gloriously down-to-earth novel is so pitch perfect that as readers reluctantly reach the last page, wanting more, they will have to take it on faith that this really is her first fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 7/25/11.]-Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.