The Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals

Starred review from June 8, 2020
Mandelbaum’s heartwarming and sharp-witted debut novel (after the collection Bad Kansas) features an estranged mother and daughter better at connecting with injured and abandoned animals than with each other. Mona Siskin, owner of the Bright Side Animal Sanctuary in St. Clare, Kans., steals a “Make America Great Again” sign from the neighboring Fuller brothers’ lawn, the sign’s letters “stamped with all the careless glory of a lower-back tattoo.” When Big John Fuller approaches Mona the next morning, she assumes he’s there to confront her about the sign. Instead, he offers to purchase her property. Bankrupt and overextended, Mona had reluctantly put the land on the market a week before, but she doesn’t want to sell to Big John, who once reported one of her workers to ICE. In Lawrence, Kans., Mona’s 24-year-old daughter, Ariel, who ran away six years earlier after betraying her mother and her first love, is surprised to learn of Mona’s plans to sell, and enraged by reports of arson at the sanctuary, along with anti-Semitic graffiti targeting her mother. She returns, hoping to help save Bright Side, and things get off to a rough start as she reckons with the past. Ariel accidentally lets five dogs escape, prompting Mona to ask if Ariel returned just to give her a heart attack. A more promising sign comes when Big John bonds with one of the runaway dogs, among many surprises in this nuanced look at political divisions and a mother and daughter’s difficult relationship. In Mandelbaum’s bighearted, emotionally intelligent tale, the love for animals proves irresistible. (Aug.)Correction: An earlier version of this review incorrectly stated this was the author's first book.

June 15, 2020
When Ariel Siskin hears about the fire at the Bright Side animal shelter in Kansas, where she grew up, she knows she has to go home to help her mother, whom she's neither seen nor spoken to for six years. Mandelbaum's debut novel--following Bad Kansas (2017), a book of short stories--is a warm-hearted tale centered around the animal sanctuary "where there's love enough for everyone." Love for the assorted dogs, mules, pigs, and other beasts certainly abounds there, but for everyone else it's been a struggle. Mona Siskin founded the shelter with an inheritance from her father, but her passion for the place came at the cost of her marriage to Daniel, a poet, who left one day without saying goodbye. Their daughter, Ariel--"the weird, quiet girl whose mom hoarded animals"--had a hard time at school, befriended only by Sydney Fuller, another social misfit whom Ariel later unintentionally betrayed. Assisted by loyal, upright Gideon, Mona's steadfast helper at the sanctuary and Ariel's first love, Ariel eventually left, too, to attend college, against her lonely mother's wishes. Ariel didn't say goodbye, either. Mandelbaum spends the greater part of her engaging but not completely resolved novel filling in this backstory and its cast of characters, including Dex, Ariel's affable boyfriend; Joy, Gideon's impossible-to-dislike girlfriend; Joy's wealthy, kindly mother, Coreen; and the Fuller brothers, whose Trump sign provokes the act of theft that kick-starts those scant events taking place in the novel's brief "present." Beyond the theft and arson (and the Trump angle), there are few sharp edges in this tale of misplaced feelings and misunderstood souls that is chiefly characterized by home, irresistible animals, and the forgiving of old rifts. Mothers and daughters reunite, and dogs seal the deal, in a feel-good charmer.

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July 1, 2020
Since birth, Ariel has lived on a pet sanctuary in rural Kansas with her parents, Mona and Daniel. Animals are Mona's raison d'�tre, but not for poet Daniel. Hours are long and money is scarce, but Ariel is happy until her father leaves. She seeks solace in the arms of Gideon, a hired hand. A good student, Ariel wins a scholarship to college, but Mona won't allow her to go. With Gideon's help, she runs away and enrolls anyway. Years pass with no rapprochement between Mona and Ariel until one of Ariel's former friends burns down the sanctuary barn. Feeling responsible somehow, Ariel comes home, abruptly leaving her loving fianc� Dex, who knows nothing of Ariel's childhood. Once there, nothing goes as planned. Gideon has found real love, and her mother may have, too. Removing her engagement ring is but one of several failings Ariel must own. Mandelbaum creates complex characters, full of contradiction and missteps. This first novel is finely rendered, lightly dashed with humor, and littered with lots of animals.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)