Even Now

Even Now takes a hard look at the darker side of female friendships, and the way childhood allegiances and competition and betrayals between girls extend into adulthood. The author states it best when she says "Every woman has a Daintry in their lives." (And if you didn't, you probably were a Daintry.) It's also a story of mother-daughter relationships, and the way predictability and routine work their own kind of devastation in even happy marriages. Kelly is best at bittersweet situations -- wanting what you can't or shouldn't have -- and the details of domestic life.

The women in Kelly's Even Now are compelling in their complexity. The forgiving and virtuous Hannah who nontheless falls in love with her old friend's husband. The haughty self-possessed Daintry who, in the end, has the most to lose. I found these women believable, the prose precise and beautifully rendered, and the book an overall joy to read.

With astute attention to the details of character, setting and daily life, Susan Kelly illuminates the ordinary. Pondering love, memory, faith,and responsiblity, Kelly transforms the everyday into the quintessential. This is a beautifully rendered story.

Even Now explores the territory of girlhood like none I've ever read. Deftly weaving past into present, Susan Kelly writes lyrically of the awkward adolescent longings we never are rid of - to be accepted, to be loved, to be something to someone. The story is perceptive, suspenseful and loaded with beguiling, humorous and honest detail about the everydays of childhood and marriage. I was swept right along.

When he accepted the teaching position at a private school, former businessman Hal Marsh and his wife Hannah sell their Durham home. They relocate with their two children to Rural Ridge, North Carolina so he can work in nearby Asheville. At a neighborhood gathering, Hannah meets her childhood friend and heroine Daintry O'Connor, a banker married to an Episcopalian priest. Years ago, Daintry and Hannah had a falling out that destroyed their forever friendship. Daintry cops a rude cold attitude while Hannah at first is a bit more enthusiastic about seeing her old buddy. Still, in spite of Daintry's nasty aloofness, the move seems perfect for the seventeen years married couple and their son and daughter. Everything changes when Hannah meets Daintry's husband, Peter Whicker. Hannah and Peter are attracted to one another and plan on having an affair. However, Hannah has doubts, not because of the moral issue of spousal fidelity, but because of the memory of what she once had with Daintry. EVEN NOW is an juxtaposed against adult realities. The story line moves with purpose slowly forward allowing the audience the opportunity to see into the souls of the key characters with an emphasis on the confused Hannah. Readers who enjoy a pleasant look at two women sharing a past, a present, and a questionable future will find Susan S. Kelly's tale a warm reading experience.