The Laws of Harmony

December 8, 2008
Satisfying psychological depth and original characters help move along Hendricks's clumsily plotted latest. Sunny Cooper still has problems with Gwen, her mother. Raised on a New Mexico commune, Sunny now lives in Albuquerque with her boyfriend, Michael, doing voice-over work. When Michael is killed in a mysterious accident, Sunny discovers he was not who she thought he was, and creditors and cops inundate her. Looking for solace, Sunny heads back to the commune, where she finds her mother to be the same maddening hippie chick she always was. Again, fed up and out of options, Sunny decides to sell everything and leave, this time for San Miguel Island off the coast of Washington, where, in a little town called Harmony, she tries to rebuild her life. But events from her past follow her to the island, and before long she's heading off-island for some closure. Hendricks's gentle humor and vivid depictions of island and communal life put a little sugar on the unfortunate and overbusy plot.

January 1, 2009
Sunny Cooper is still struggling with the aftereffects of having been raised on a commune. It was there she developed an aversion to rigidly scheduling her days and there that she witnessed the death of her little sister. Now, 14 years later, shes living in Albuquerque and involved with a business entrepreneur. But when her fianc' is killed in an auto accident, everything she thinks she knowsabout him turns out to beuntrue, seriously damagingher sense of self-worth. Grief-stricken yet angry, she decides to leaveAlbuquerque and ends upin the town of Harmonyon San Miguel Island.There she learns all over how to be self-sufficient, settling into a remote cabin, learning to ride a motorcycle, and trying to soothe her difficult relationship with her mother. Although there is a slight disconnect in that the most interesting parts of the novel turn out to be Sunnys loathed years of commune living, Hendricks has an engaging narrative voice that will pull readers right into this story of a damaged woman who is more resilient than she realizes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)