White Picket Fences

The Janvier family of four lives an idyllic life until 16-year-old Tally, a distant cousin, moves in. Hidden secrets are revealed when 17-year-old Chase, who feels responsible for a childhood tragedy, collaborates with Tally on a high school project that involves interviewing Holocaust survivors. The teens see similarities between the survivors and their own family members who refuse to talk about the long-ago tragedy. Bernadette Dunne captures the story's multifaceted undercurrents with skilled nuances and subtle sensitivity. Her textured characterizations suggest the blame and guilt that threaten the family and eventually force acknowledgment of the past. Dunne convincingly portrays a family in search of truth and healing. G.D.W. (c) AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine

August 3, 2009
Meissner's The Shape of Mercy
was a PW
best book for 2008, but her newest doesn't measure up. The Janvier family takes into their Southern California home the abruptly homeless Tally Bachmann, 16-year-old daughter of Bart Bachmann, Amanda Janvier's ne'er-do-well brother, who has gone to Poland to unearth a family mystery. The Janviers are to be understood as an ideal family who slowly come to confront urgent and threatening secrets in their past; problem is, several family members—the emotionally detached dad in the woodshop, for one—are as stereotyped as the titular symbol of idealized family values. Tally and 17-year-old Chase Janvier, around whom much of the story revolves, are nicely realized; Meissner has a sure touch with their characterizations. But plotting problems undermine intended emotional impact: the Polish connection is not credibly presented, a Holocaust connection is likewise hard to believe, and some of the plot resolution is more mechanical than organic. Meissner can write, but here she has overreached.