As a brilliant, gorgeous, hypertalented 15-year-old in the '70s, Phoebe Allen fell under the spell of 31-year-old movie director Whitney Traynor. By 18, she's living with him and coauthoring his screenplay for no credit; at 19 she's pregnant and married to musician Mitchell Gentry; a few years later she's a widow. Flash forward to 1996, where the book actually opens, and Phoebe's blossoming love affair with a local artist on Owl Island in the Pacific Northwest is interrupted by Whitney's arrival. Phoebe's 21-year-old daughter, Laurienne, learns for the first time about her mother's relationship with the now-famous director, who may be her real father. Coburn (Remembering Jody) mishandles the mother-daughter conflict by attempting to equate it with Phoebe's own mother keeping secret the family's history at Auschwitz, but the comparison doesn't ever line up. The familiar melodrama is further marred by overwrought prose ("When she slammed the door, Phoebe heard the crash of shattered trust"), driving Coburn's story into camp territory. (June) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Owl Island
Narrated by Carrington MacDuffie
Randy Sue CoburnUnabridged — 13 hours, 17 minutes
Owl Island
Narrated by Carrington MacDuffie
Randy Sue CoburnUnabridged — 13 hours, 17 minutes
Overview
Among the towering firs and windswept beaches of a Pacific Northwest island, a woman's long-ago first love unexpectedly returns, teaching her the damaging power of secrets and the liberating lessons of love.
Widow Phoebe Allen has single-handedly raised a wonderful daughter and established a successful business supplying nets to fisherman and now enjoys the amorous attentions of a longtime friend. When she learns that her old boyfriend, Whitney Traynor, has purchased a house nearby, she must confront long-suppressed feelings for her charismatic first love, now a high-profile film director. For years, Phoebe has concealed truths from her daughter and may now be forced to divulge them. As the past rushes forth like an inevitable tide, Phoebe discovers the life-transforming benefits of opening one's heart.
Editorial Reviews
When a former lover returns to the remote Puget Sound island where she lives, Phoebe, a fortysomething single mother of a grown daughter, finds her life in turmoil. She is haunted by memories of her relationship with Whit Traynor, which began when Phoebe was a teenager and Whit a radio DJ she admired. As Phoebe flashes back to trace her past, the reader is at first as seduced by Whit as Phoebe was. Eventually, though, Whit is shown to be a destructive force in her life, with the power to control her and lead her to bad decisions. Coburn packs the book with rather obvious metaphors and symbolism; instead of trusting the reader to get a point, she explains it in bald prose. Nevertheless, Phoebe's journey to self-fulfillment is a moving one readers will understand, and the Pacific Northwest setting is atmospheric and believably drawn. Recommended for regional collections and larger public libraries.-Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Minnesota Libs., Minneapolis Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
Coburn's beautifully realized second novel is a perceptive assessment of what women do in love. Beautiful, strong-willed Phoebe, owner of a fish-net company, lives an agreeable life on a Puget Sound island. Her daughter Laurienne works in Seattle writing computer code, and artist Ivan, long-time friend, now lover, lives a few houses down the road. A satisfying existence, but over the course of the novel, Phoebe begins to realize hers has been a guarded life since her affair with Whit Traynor decades ago. And the reason for this fresh evaluation: A new neighbor has moved in, the now-famous director Whitney Traynor, with young wife Jasmine in tow. His appearance sends Phoebe reeling back to her enshrined memories of their relationship, the watershed moment of Phoebe's life. As a precocious teenager in 1960s Seattle, Phoebe became entranced by a local radio deejay, the charismatic Whit, who seemed to be speaking directly to Phoebe. She wrote him smart, seductive letters, filled with whimsy and innuendo, and he replied in turn, the two never meeting until Phoebe turned 18. Phoebe proudly worked on Whit's first feature film (suitably about artist's muse Kiki de Montparnasse), and while he credits Phoebe for inspiration, she did much of the work. When the two split up-a messy affair of cheating and rebound romances-Phoebe is pregnant and unsure if Whit is the father. Coburn smartly reveals only the Whit that young Phoebe sees-stylish, brilliantly idiosyncratic and in love. Not until later does middle-aged Phoebe (and the reader) perceive an altogether different Whit, unprotected by the flush of youth. Now Phoebe guardedly hopes that Whit is still in love with her. Why would he move to theisland? Why would he call Jasmine a replacement Phoebe? And who else but Whit could have sent her all those magical gifts-a handful of rubies, a hummingbird's nest-through the years? This sad fantasy of true love reunited soon gives way to Phoebe gaining some hard-earned insight about her own willingness to hide in someone's shadow. A richly conceived portrait of memory and identity.
Gentle and elegaic, set in a landscape remote and dramatic, Owl Island illuminates its characters' longing for truth and meaning, and makes the reader believe in love in a whole new way.”
–Luanne Rice
“Coburn’s beautifully realized second novel is a perceptive assessment of what women do in love. . . . A richly conceived portrait of memory and identity.”
–Kirkus Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169901900 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 01/01/2006 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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Excerpted from "Owl Island"
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Copyright © 2007 Randy Sue Coburn.
Excerpted by permission of Random House Publishing Group.
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