Roses

Coleen Marlo delivers an old-fashioned sprawling, multigenerational rags-to-riches tale with a healthy supply of steamy unrequited romance, all played out in the American heartland. Marlo is every bit a match for this material as she gives a strong performance that endows each character with personality and convincing emotions. She keeps the tension high, excelling in portraying Mary Toliver's relentless drive to save her family's plantation--to the detriment of all else--while also making clear what it's costing her to do so. By the time listeners reach Mary's granddaughter in the third generation, they will have a real feel for the ambiance and history of Texas. D.G. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

October 26, 2009
This enthralling stunner, a good old-fashioned read, may herald the overdue return of those delicious doorstop epics from such writers as Barbara Taylor Bradford and Colleen McCullough. Meacham's multigenerational family saga, set in East Texas circa 1914–1985, charts the transformation of Mary Toliver, a wide-eyed 16-year-old heiress, into a calculating cotton plantation queen as hardheaded as Scarlett O'Hara. Her brother, Miles, goes off to WWI, returns home, but then goes back to France to marry Marietta, a French Communist, leaving Mary to deal with their plantation, Somerset, and Darla, their alcoholic mother (who later hangs herself ). Many years later, Mary, now an elderly, terminally ill widow, resolves to defeat the “Toliver Curse” and regrets “selling her soul for Somerset” and giving up her true love, Percy Warwick, the father of their secret child, to marry their friend Ollie DuMont, who helped her save Somerset when Percy refused. Meacham uses three well-balanced viewpoints: Mary's, Percy's and Rachel's, Mary's great-niece, who must confront Percy when she discovers some disquieting family information after Mary dies. A refreshingly nostalgic bouquet of family angst, undying love and “if onlys.”