The Four Seasons

By Mary Alice Monroe

Book Overview

The Four Seasons by Mary Alice Monroe released on Jan 23, 2004 is available now for purchase.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0778320189
• ISBN13: 9780778320180
• Release Date: January 2004
• Publisher: MIRA
• Length: 362 Pages
• Weight: 0.71 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.9" x 5.1"

Customer Reviews

Heartwarming and full of insights!

Mary Alice Monroe always has wonderful insight into emotions and relationships. Her style of writing is crisp and beautiful. In The Four Seasons, she does a great job of interweaving the story of sisters who have unresolved conflicts and family issues. Their journey--literal and emotional--develops the characters on lots of levels. The story is like a symphony, with some notes and instruments taking the lead while others subside. Bottomline--this novel is uplifting, insightful, and comes to a full and deeply satisfying conclusion. Monroe is a gifted author.

A real good reading experience

In Evanston, Illinois, three of the four Seasons siblings are coming home to attend the funeral of their youngest sister Merry. Only thirty-two, Merry died when her lungs finally failed after a long period of illness. The oldest of the sisters, Jilly flies in from France where her career as a model is just about over. Birdie, accompanied by her spouse and teenage daughter, drives down from Wisconsin. Rose, being Merry's caretaker over the years, waits for the arrival of her two sisters.After the funeral ends, the family attorney announces the will, which is standard stuff until he gives the siblings a video and a letter from Merry, who was brain damaged in an accident many years ago. In both, Merry pleads with her siblings to bring home Spring, the daughter that Jilly gave up for adoption when she was a teen. The trio reacts differently to Merry's deathbed request, but in the end blood proves thicker than water and an odyssey to "return home" by finding Spring begins.THE FOUR SEASONS is a deep contemporary relationship drama that showcases the personalities of four siblings. The story line is loaded with emotion as each of the three surviving Seasons cope with Merry's death and her request in their own way. With novels like this one and THE BOOK CLUB, Mary Alice Monroe continues to be one of the leaders of complex female relationship dramas that hit home to the audience.Harriet Klausner