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 every crooked pot
by Renee Rosen
In a debut novel that could easily have been published as an adult memoir, Rosen looks back at the life of Nina Goldman, whose growing up is tied to two pillars: a port-wine stain around her eye and her inimitable father, Artie. The birthmark, she hates; her father, she loves. Both shape her in ways that merit Rosen's minute investigation, which begins with an incident both funny and shocking. Stopped for speeding, her father tells the officer he is rushing young Nina to the hospital and shows him her eye, which looks as though it's hemorrhaging. When the cop leaves, father and daughter take off for the beach. The story highlights how Nina's eye is both liability and excuse, and it reveals the high-wire act that is her father—an emotional man who shapes reality and the people around him. As Nina grows older, readers feel the pain she endures by being physically marked (boys bark at "the dog"). Difficult in different ways is having a father whose love feels like sunshine; withheld, all is dark. There's real power in the writing as well as a subtle message when a grown Nina finds a cache of notes, showing how she clung to her disability, even after treatment. Rosen writes honestly about sex, and there are some raw words, but this story offers hope for teenagers who, as ever, are trying to separate from their perceived flaws, and from their parents.
— reviewed by Ilene Cooper |
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| Price: |
$9.95 (List Price: $9.95) |
| Publisher: |
St. Martin's Griffin (June 26, 2007) |
| Published: |
2007 |
| ISBN: |
0312365438 |
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