The Getaway by Martha Whitmore Hickman has a wonderful storyline, that of a woman raising a family in a small town in New Hampshire in the early part of the 20th century. Rachel is different from most folks of her time, interested in astronomy and science. Through a well-written and descriptive narrative of Rachel’s life, Hickman guides us through the death of a daughter, the marriages of her sons, and the final blow of losing her beloved husband, Cyrus. What I found lacking, however, was a reasoning or feeling of how hard the loss of her daughter hit her. Since it highly impacts the absolutely glorious ending of the story, it would have done well to linger a bit on this portion of the story. Perhaps it was the details in other areas that took the reader’s attention that somehow made one skip over the obvious, I don’t know. Even the incredible, wonderful ending where Rachel takes action using her knowledge of chemistry and love of astronomy to blast away in a church steeple is a bit deflated by not the gathering together of these elements (that was cleverly done) but by the overexplaining final sentences, "I’ve gone with your father and Miriam," the note said. "See you later." It was in his mother’s handwriting. (p. 163) Other than that, I enjoyed it.
John Martin’s The Acorn War is what I would guess to be called psychological realism. We are hearing the thoughts of a young boy as he talks about squirrels and imaginary dangers and how life could be grand if only, etc. What we’re hearing is the thread woven through of a dysfunctional family and a boy who is beaten by his drunken father, belittled by his grossly overweight mother, and the kid takes his escape into daydreams. He imagines acorns as weapons, the loud sound of their falling almost an audible version of his world. Good, no terrific stuff that had me spellbound by language use, nor a story so different than what is a sad fact of life for so many.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology