The Blue Hour

The opening sentence says so much: "Some people complain because they can't remember things -- say, the name of the couple who once lived next door, or even the order in which events in a life began to go wrong." Elizabeth Evan's narrator, 11-year-old Penny, remembers everything, especially the neighbors. Evans writes in vivid detail from a young girl's point of view which is incredible given that the events happened in the distant past. I never doubted for an instant, however, the validity of the memories. The close, yet prickly relationship between Penny and her mother is portrayed candidly and without sentiment. Anger and hurt feelings collide with loyalty and affection. The beauty and immediacy of the writing places the reader in situations with the characters -- housework, picnics, cocktail parties, family fights, etc. In 1959, Penny's parents and sister move into a house and neighborhood beyond their means and everyone in the family, especially the mother, strains to fit in. The conflicts between the family members and friends mount until everything crashes. Throughout the novel one senses a dark cloud building. Evans is an elegant novelist who has given us a glimpse inside the lives and homes of ordinary people. She shows us their loves, hopes and disappointments. They are us, and the American Dream is an illusion.

There are so few real books being published these days, and even fewer being reviewed. The Blue Hour should be on everyone's list of the best books of the last fifty years, and that list should be long and varied. But this book has never gotten the exposure it should get, and it's sad that our best writers are so little admired and so little known. If you do one kind thing for yourself--if you are a lover of good fiction--give yourself the gift of this book; you won't be able to forget it, and it's wonderful even to reread!

I read this book after finding it in a used bookstore a couple years ago and absolutely loved it. It was one of those books that I am always in search of--the type that you are still thinking about three days after you have finished it. In fact, I liked it so much that I wrote to the author to let her know how wonderful I thought it was, and received a reply from her thanking me for my note. (She had said how she had a horrible day and then opened my letter and felt at least a little better.) If you want to read an emotionally moving story, then I would certainly recommend that you buy this book!

I could see myself back in my parents' home as they entertained their friends, back then in the fifties. The mood is captured perfectly,and, as seen through the eyes of a little girl who is about the age I was at that time, it really touched me. The plot moves almost dreamily, but very inexorably, and I was drawn into the lives of the family members. It was the kind of book that made me want to sneak away from the day's work to keep on reading. I recommend it.

This is a very touching story of a family grasping to belong, but not quite making it. They try living beyond their means, almost living out a fantasy. Yet, only their surrounds alter. The family and marital difficulties are still there and the financial issues only add to these troubles. In the end true happiness and contentment are still just out of their reac