A Way From Home
(NANCY CLARK)
It was all a game, Alden thought, when his wife Becky responded to their new
life in Prague
by making all the rules herself. He guessed that, after 20 some years together,
now was not the moment to remind Becky that he knew her better than she knew
herself. Consequently, it came as a bit of a shock one day when she
disappeared, turning up months later in Libya with William, an old flame
who had never ceased to let Becky know that, when she was ready for him, he was
ready for her.
Though the characters spring full-grown from Nancy Clark''s delightful first
novel, The Hills at Home, readers can fully enjoy A Way from Home
on its own. Once again Clark demonstrates her consummate talent for yeasty
prose that rises to every occasion: complicated ones, like Americans in Czechoslovakia
on the eve of the country''s separation, or those simple beyond belief, like
adultery. Clark has been compared to Jane Austen, but requires even more
attention?and rewards it, offering paragraphs stuffed with loaded insights and
original takes on universal human experiences.
As before, Clark''s oblique humor sets
everything straight, sometimes answering questions one never thought to ask.
Becky, surrounded by North Africans, thought rather well of herself for not
really minding the natives. Or on a lesser note, there''s the pet dog who was an
inveterate groin sniffer; he was just the right height. Obviously, there is
sometimes a sharp edge behind the smile, like a Cheshire cat with teeth.
Clark is already working on the final Hill
novel in the trilogy. Keeping up this level of excellence can''t be easy, but
apparently for her, it''s natural. Second novels are the test: based on this
one, readers need have no qualms about looking forward to the upcoming July
and August.
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