In her first novel, an opus with soap opera overtones, Simons uses
a voice as flat as the Kansas prairie to relate the story of
Natalie Makker, nicknamed Tully due to her brother's
mispronunciation of her name. At times this voice is used to great
effect. Tully's life is dramatic - her mother beats her brutally,
her best friend commits suicide over a high school love, and as an
under-age teenager she earns money by performing wantonly in dance
contests - and a more enthusiastic narration could have made these
incidents melodramatic. But the repetitious plot eventually grates.
Tully finds herself having to choose between two men not once, but
twice. She becomes pregnant while taking birth control pills twice
as well, she habitually slits her wrists because she likes how it
feels, and her mourning over the death of her teenage best friend
Jennifer - a formerly autistic young woman who still counted
compulsively - drags on well into adulthood. This is the weakest
point in development of Tully's character, since Jennifer is only
introduced as a depressed teenager and it is therefore difficult to
understand why Tully would place this loss at the center of her
existence. The Kansas setting is evocative in its emptiness, but
there is also a certain hollowness at Tully's core that keeps her
from human contact and staves off empathy; at one point she says of
herself to a boyfriend: "There is no center. There is only the
outer edge. Inside is a black hole" - and that is all too easy to
believe. An overload of angst and unnecessary length finally do
this novel in. (Kirkus Reviews)
The astonishing debut novel from international number one
bestselling author Paullina Simons, beautifully repackaged Tully
Makker is a tough young woman from the wrong side of the tracks and
she is not always easy to like. But if Tully gives friendship and
loyalty, she gives them for good, and she forms an enduring bond
with Jennifer and Julie, school friends from very different
backgrounds. As they grow into the world of the seventies and
eighties, the lives of the three best friends are changed forever
by two young men, Robin and Jack, and a tragedy which engulfs them
all. Against the odds, Tully emerges into young womanhood, marriage
and a career. At last Tully Makker has life under control. And then
life strikes back in the most unexpected way of all...
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