Tumbleweeds

May 28, 2012
Meacham (Roses) explores a small-town love triangle against the backdrop of Texas football in her overblown latest. Since childhood, Trey Don "TD" Hall and best friend John Caldwell have cared primarily for football and one another. But when recently orphaned Catherine Ann Benson moves to town to live with her grandmother, the boys are immediately drawn to her. At first, the three sixth-graders are just fast friends, but after adolescence sets in, their relationship deepens and complicates. Despite the boys' stellar high school football careers and Catherine Ann's equally sterling academic record, their future plans are fumbled thanks to a botched prank, a secret infatuation, and an accidental pregnancy, all of which will have consequences stretching far into the future. Spanning nearly 30 years, the novel seems unsure of its intentions: is it a romance, a sports saga, or a murder mystery? Most jarring is the novel's unevenness of tone; a detailed description of autoerotic asphyxiation feels out of place compared to rosy-hued scenes of young love, and the poorly-plotted murder mystery is an awkward and unnecessary appendage to what could otherwise have been a satisfying drama.

June 15, 2012
A topical soap opera from bestselling novelist Meacham (Roses, 2010, etc.), set on the familiar turf of small-town Texas. Big hair is a big part of such places, but especially in the big-hair era of the early 1980s. Meacham captures the period details in her description of 11-year-old Cathy Benson, "her attitudes already formed by her upbringing and the ways and lifestyle of her native state"--that being California, the antipode of Kersey, Texas, with all the free-spiritedness and antinomianism that the Golden State might bring to the Lone Star State. Without really meaning to, Cathy gets inside the heads of two local boys, up-and-coming football stars for whom girls are a forbidden but irresistible attraction. What's a quarterback to do? Well, one thing leads to another, and another, and another, and Cathy finds herself with a love bump and no place to go. Ah, but therein hangs much of the action of the book, which can be seen coming from a long way off; suffice it to say that the shotgun at book's end isn't necessarily meant to enforce a wedding. The plot is serviceable, the writing sometimes less so; one wonders what to do with a sentence such as, "The way he'd always thought of her had vanished as suddenly and completely as the boy's make-believe playmate in the song 'Puff, the Magic Dragon.' " Beg pardon? The soundtrack here ought to be provided by Boy George, if not Mickey Gilley. And there's got to be a rule about expository sententiousness along the lines of "The town's expectations were a heavy weight on their shoulders." True enough, but no heavier than events are about to place on the lads, for all the unhappiness and convenient storyline twists that they entail. Though full of groaners--"It was a drive down memory lane"--Meacham's latest is of a piece with her past work, and sure to find an eager audience among romance buffs.

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May 15, 2012

In 2008, Trey Don (TD) Hall calls an old friend who hasn't heard from him in 22 years. TD and John Caldwell were once best buddies. The third member of their tight-knit group was Catherine Ann Benson, orphaned at 11, and sent to Kersey, TX, where the two boys took her under their wings. In their teens, the boys were football stars in a town that lived and died for football. The three remained inseparable until an unexpected illness, a teen prank gone wrong, and misperceptions changed the courses of their lives. Now, TD plans to reveal the secrets that tore them apart. VERDICT Meacham's (Roses) second sprawling novel is as large as Texas itself. The author skillfully manipulates multiple themes of friendship, loss, guilt, and the possibility of redemption. Readers who love epic sagas that span a couple of generations will enjoy this soap opera tale of young love, betrayal, and living a life that might not have a happy ending. [See Prepub Alert, 12/18/11.]--Lesa Holstine, Glendale P.L., AZ

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2012
Soap operas may be struggling on television, but they're alive and well in Meacham's fiction. As with the best-selling Roses (2010), her latest is set in Texas, where the small town of Kersey is typically obsessed with the fortunes of its high-school football squad. The action centers on the team's standouts and best friends, Trey Don (TD) Hall and John Caldwell, and Cathy Benson, an orphan the boys took under their wing in childhood. Trey and John both love Cathy, but Cathy only returns Trey's affection. To detail all the twists and turns of this love triangle would require another novel. In short: accidental murder and cover-up; a case of the mumps that leads to undisclosed sterility; a surprise pregnancy; lies, deceit, heartbreak, and more killing. For good measure, John becomes a priest, which plays out a bit like The Thorn Birds. As dictated by the sudser format, the plot drives characters' behavior, rather than vice versa, and dialogue frequently serves double duty as exposition. It's all very over-the-top, which, as with any soap opera, is the story's greatest appeal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)