The Sand Castle

March 3, 2008
Feisty Southern sisters Juts and Wheezy, of bestselling author Brown's Six of One trilogy, are back and as irascible as ever. The story unfolds in a single summer day in 1952, when the two make a day-trip to the beach accompanied by Jut's seven-year-old daughter, Nickel, and Wheezie's grandson, eight-year-old Leroy, whose mother has recently died. The day's events are simple: a long drive to the beach, the building of an elaborate sandcastle, a spat between sisters, lunch at a crab shack, a sudden injury and the drive back home. Brown creates palpable tension throughout, largely with tightly constructed dialogue. Nickel's teasing of grieving Leroy foreshadows the small catastrophe to come, and her cruelty contrasts with Juts's awkward attempts to draw her newly religious sister, still mourning the death of her daughter (Leroy's mother), back into the world. When the four return from lunch, Leroy receives a wound that rivals his inner pain. The sisters' collective response and Leroy's eventual release into sadness shape the end of the day, but not of the novel: the final three paragraphs elevate this tale from bittersweet to heartbreaking.

September 29, 2008
Aside from the overpackaging (the inch-thick plastic clamshell case holds just two CDs), everything about this lean presentation fits nicely together. Marguerite Gavin's crisp, clean delivery moves the story along at a clipped pace; her voice is as clear and bright as the sunny day on Chesapeake Bay it describes. Creating a distinct aural character for each of the five family members in this story through accent and delivery seems effortless for Gavin. Particularly well done is her treatment of the seven-year-old Nickel, the main character of the story, and the older, reminiscing Nickel who narrates the tale. To the listener, she is obviously the same character, though her age and role in the presentation varies. A Grove hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 3).

On a summer day in 1952, 7-year-old Nickel, her mother, her aunt, and her cousin, 8-year old Leroy, have come to the seashore. Her aunt's daughter (Leroy's mother) has recently died, and while the two women try to coax Leroy out of his doldrums, Nickel finds pleasure in taunting and torturing him, with a particularly nasty reference to his penis. Havoc in this family prevails until Leroy is bitten on his privates by a crab--and the four find themselves bonding. Narrator Marguerite Gavin infuses the women with strength and fortitude, but the children seem forced into their roles. The plot proceeds at a relaxed tempo at first, then slogs its way to the ending. Not Rita Mae Brown's best effort. M.T.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine