Man at the Helm

Locations
Call Number: Fiction / Stibbe, Nina, Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Stibbe, Nina
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Stibbe, Nina	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Historical / Stibbe, Nina	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"Originally published in Great Britain by the Penguin Group, August 2014"--Title page verso.
"Born into a posh family, ten-year old Lizzie Vogel has lived a charmed life thus far, with a big sister who knows everything, a cute baby brother, and a full-time housekeeper who bakes jam tarts. But when, in 1970, Lizzie's father abandons her mother and packs his ex-family off to the tiny village of Flatstone, life for the Vogels veers catastrophically off-course. The new neighbors disapprove of divorcees and fatherless children, and Lizzie's theatrical mother provides constant grist for the gossip mill, letting the laundry pile up like Mount Sinai and spending her days drinking whiskey, popping pills and writing plays about how sad she is. Before long the family is shunned by village society. Deciding that only a "man at the helm" will restore order to their household, Lizzie and her sister take it upon themselves to secure a new husband for their mother. As the two girls make their way down a list of candidates that includes a charming con-artist, an idiotic vicar, and several married men, Lizzie confronts the downright craziness of grown-up love and learns that sometimes a family needs to veer catastrophically off-course in order to find true happiness"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

More depressing slog than lighthearted romp. submitted by Sara W on July 13, 2015, 9:51pm Book blurbs had me expecting something with a little more charm, but I found this to be a pretty depressing story of three young children dealing with their emotionally-unstable, drug-addicted mother after being abandoned by their father. The tone definitely has some levity, deprecation, understatements, preoccupatons, and assumptions that remind you that the narrator is around age 10, but the further you go, the heavier the subject matter becomes, and the tone stops helping and starts making it worse. There's a happy ending, but I didn't enjoy the effort of getting there enough to really appreciate it.