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Library | Call Number | Status |
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Searching... Woodburn Public Library | Hinton | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
An out of sorts librarian finds support and friendship in the most unlikely place--a new novel from the national bestselling author of Friendship Cake Andreas Jay Hackett is a university librarian known for her love of keeping things organized. But one summer, she finds herself falling away from a sense of well being, depressed, "out of order." Her work doesn't give her pleasure, her friends worry about her, and her own voice begins to frighten her. Therapy, pills and doctors visits don't help, so Andreas checks herself into a psychiatric facility. There, she finds herself in a room next door to a prison inmate who has also been hospitalized. As she talks with her new neighbor, Andreas begins to come out of her despair--ultimately finding the healing she needs through a friendship that develops in the darkest of circumstances, and despite boundaries of race, gender, education, and age.
Author Notes
Lynne Hinton is from North Carolina. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and her Masters of Divinity degree from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. She also studied at Wake Forest University and the NC School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking.
While in seminary, Lynne began considering writing and enrolled in literature classes. She is the author of several books, including a nonfiction piece, MEDITATIONS FOR WALKING, and the Hope Springs Trilogy with FRIENDSHIP CAKE, CHRISTMAS CAKE AND WEDDING CAKE.
Lynne also has a mystery series with St. Martin's, written under the name, Jackie Lynn which includes DOWN BY THE RIVERSIDE, JACOB'S LADDER, and SWING LOW, SWEET CHARIOT.
Lynne is a regular columnist with The Charlotte Observer and she has served as a chaplain with hospice and as the pastor of Mount Hope United Church of Christ and First Congregational United Church of Christ, both in North Carolina.
Lynne and her husband, Bob Branard, presently live near Spokane, Washington where Lynne is an interim pastor at the Chewelah United Church of Christ.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Kirkus Review
An oddly satisfying little novel from Hinton (The Arms of God, 2005, etc.), most of which takes place during a single night at a mental institution. As the story begins, Andy considers those things which made possible her fall into depression: the summer heat, the idle neglect of neighbors, the ominous absence of butterflies. We soon learn that this headlong swing into the abyss is nothing new for Andyit is a shadow that crosses her life from time to time. But this summer it interferes with her work (she is a research librarian at a Southern university) and she is put on leave. She enters Holly Pines dubious and desperate, and she leaves fully recoveredall thanks to a suicidal prisoner from the local penitentiary. Feeling no better after weeks at the private hospital, Andy decides on her last day to attend chapel service. There she sees for the first time Lathin, a middle-aged African-American with bandages on his arms. She knows he has been moved to the room next to hers, but it comes as a surprise when, in the late evening, he begins talking to her through the air vent. Like priest and confessor separated by a wall, the two exchange confidences and memories so fragile they've barely been spoken. He tells her about his mother and her sad, obsessive love for a small cactus, and of his daughter Mary, who mysteriously quit speaking. Andy tells Lathin of her own mother, a waitress wandering from one town and man to another, dreaming of becoming a journalist. Then she tells Lathin of the best time in her life, of the summers she spent on her grandmother's farm with her beloved cousin PeeDee, of the happiness and the tragedy that shaped Andy's safe, hollow adult life. If Hinton's conclusion is a bit too easy for realism, the emotional journey these two strangers make offers a spiritual truth about the power of confession and forgiveness. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Andreas, a college librarian, finds herself drowning in depression. We don't know much about her, but watch as she nearly comes undone and ultimately puts herself in a facility. Diagnosis and treatment are more dependent on the state of her insurance than need, so her disconnection from the process is as complete as that from herself. When a prison inmate is taken into the facility, the two have a night-long conversation through the heating vents by the window. They have nothing in common except for their need and the resolution they can offer each other. In the morning it is as though the inmate never existed, raising the question of whether he was real. But Andreas' recovery is real, and, in her mind, so is he. Hinton's matter-of-fact prose belies the complexity of the story being told. There are also some curious quirks: the chapter headings are Dewey call numbers in honor of Andreas being a librarian (albeit without even a BA, not to mention an MLS), but readers will find much to enjoy.--Hoover, Danise Copyright 2009 Booklist