The Lost Girls

December 8, 2003
What do you do when your mother raises you to believe that fairy tales are real? And why do women fall in love with men who refuse to grow up? Fox's second novel (after the well-received My Sister from the Black Lagoon
), asks both questions as she traces the intimate relationship of five generations of women with Peter Pan, the protagonist of J.M. Barrie's classic tale. The women are the descendants of the original Wendy Darling, and they must balance their magical experiences with modern-day reality. The narrator, Wendy Darling Braverman, is the great-granddaughter of the original Wendy, who tells her that she—like her mother and grandmother before her—will one night be awakened by a boy with whom she will fall madly in love. Peter Pan does appear to Wendy one evening when she's 13, and brings her to Neverland to take care of him and the Lost Boys. Wendy grows to adore the charming, elusive Peter, who flirts and tantalizes, but never gives Wendy the love she craves. Back in the real world, Wendy grows up filled with longing and angst, channeling her imagination into the writing of children's stories. Her husband, Freeman, a musician with a passion for cartoon sounds and avoiding employment, is yet another man-child with no desire to grow up. When Wendy and Freeman's own rebellious teenage daughter becomes dangerously entangled in the Peter Pan mythology, Wendy is forced to re-examine her deepest secrets and the meaning of the Darling legacy. Fox's inventive conceit is overdeveloped and her coy stylings grow tiresome, but her clever interrogation of a self-destructive romantic tendency makes this an interesting experiment. Agent, Linda Chester.

September 15, 2003
After My Sister from the Black Lagoon; generations of "lost girls" who visited another, better place are recalled by a contemporary Wendy.

Copyright 2003 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2003
Wendy Amelia Darling Braverman Ullman is the fourth descendant of the Wendy--now an old lady, Great Nana--who inspired J. M. Barrie and, through the years, was lover and muse to various poets, artists, and other ne'er-do-wells. She captivates the new Wendy with her sparkling eyes, jewelry, and stories of the Boy, whom she says Wendy will surely meet. Peter comes very late, though, and Wendy, 13, has since lived through her parents' divorce, her bohemian mother's fads and infatuations, and her glamorous father's only occasional acknowledgment of his pensive daughter. When Peter appears in button-fly jeans and spiky hair, Wendy begins to understand how strange and special it is to be a girl in her family. Wendy does visit Neverland (the fairies are bitchy), then adulthood and marriage to a loopy musician, and when her daughter becomes a brilliant, sarcastic Goth teenager, she visits Great Nana, too. A wry mixture of Fay Weldon and Alice Hoffman, magical and scary, full of the possibilities and heartbreak of growing up.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)