The Cure

By Varley O'Connor

"An old-fashioned novel, in the best sense of that phrase, elegantly wrought, hardheaded, and tenderhearted."--Michael Chabon on A Company of Three "A first novel that soars."-- The New York Times on Like China As America emerges from the Depression, the Hatherfords build a comfortable life just outside of New York City, in rural Bergen County, New Jersey. They are a glamorous couple: Vern is the charismatic owner of a successful Ford dealership, and his flamboyant wife Maeve is beautiful even in middle age. When their three-year-old son Scott falls prey to polio, and later, another son must go to war, their marriage slowly implodes. In the midst of it all, twelve-year-old Patsy steals swallows of whiskey and tries to make sense of the world around her, which includes an unusual intimacy between her brother Scott, and Julian, a young African American boy who lives among them. Neither historical nor medical fiction, The Cure offers the pleasures of both in its richly complex portrayal of the lives and times of its characters. A beautifully written family saga about race, war, childhood illness, and romantic desire, The Cure has at its heart wounding and the struggle for hope. Varley O'Connor is the author of A Company of Three (Algonquin, 2003) and Like China (Morrow, 1991). She has taught writing at Hofstra University; Brooklyn College; University of California, Irvine; and the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. She has been an actress for television, theater, and film and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1934137030
• ISBN13: 9781934137031
• Release Date: May 2007
• Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.1" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Illuminating, shifting points of view

An extraordinary story of a family in the early 1940s, this novel's gift is its ability to move its point of view from one character to the next, revealing each one to be vulnerable, human, complex. We see the feeling of parents devastated by their son's polio, siblings coping with loss of attention, servants working for others while dealing with their own griefs and joys--and with many others figures, all suffering from the vagaries of daily life and their moment in American history.The precision of psychological and emotional detail is matched by historical and cultural resonances,so that everything feels familiar and well-rounded, even as the events that unfold are off-beat and surprising. As a result the reader's sympathies are also challenged and finally gratified. If you love unsentimental but humane fiction told in words with the precision of poetry but the clarity of prose, you will love this book.