Best Kept Secret

May 9, 2011
Wine is as much a character in Hatvany's confessional third novel (after The Language of Sisters) as is Cadence Sutter, the journalist and single mom whose struggle with alcohol Hatvany chronicles in maudlin detail. Once upon a time, Sutter was a happy wife and loving mother to Charlie, now five, but a bitter divorce led her to cope with her stresses by drinkingâa lot. Over the course of a year, having a glass or two of Merlot with friends slid messily into nonstop binges in the privacy of her own home. Now, after losing custody of her son, Candace is in a fight to win him back, both legally and emotionally. Hatvany interrupts the present with glimpses of Sutter's year of uncontrolled drinking, revealing the painful realities of addiction. The author adopts the intimate feel of a memoir and unfortunately unimaginative prose: "I averted my eyes from my child and gulped down two long swallows. It only took a moment for that familiar feeling to wash over me, like hot honey pushing through my veins." Still, she illustrates how easily someone leading what looks like a normal life can actually be terribly trapped.

June 15, 2011

A divorced, alcoholic mother finds her way into a fairy tale in which the promise of her young son's love helps her defeat naysayers and overcome her demons, finally.

Like most women, freelance journalist Cadence feels pressure: pressure from her mother, her sister, her son, her ex-mother-in-law, herself. She must be a good mommy. She must be perfect. Overwhelmed, she begins drinking more each night. But now she has committed one of the worst mommy sins: She's fallen into an alcoholic stupor in front of her 5-year-old son, Charlie. To the rescue come Martin, her cold, workaholic ex-husband, who whisks Charlie out of her life, and Jess, her capable younger sister, who plops her into the hospital's psych ward. Set adrift from her son, unable to write through her wet brain, Cadence must begin a journey through detox, rehab and AA. Along the way, as in any good fairy tale, she confronts obstacles (the sneering Mommy Mafia), exposes family secrets (grandma used to drink, too) and endures trials (watching other people drink). Yet she also finds true friends and perhaps true love. With the help of her new friends, Cadence begins to see addiction not as a moral failing but as a coping mechanism. Whether we use food, drink, work or cigarettes, we all try to escape. As Cadence's counselor points out, it's just "Different behavior, same compulsion."

With some unsettling descriptions of despair, Hatvany keeps this potentially harrowing story lighthearted and hopeful.

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 15, 2011
Cadence Martin used to have a perfect life. Married to a successful man, with her own promising freelance journalism career ahead of her, she was also the mother of precocious, five-year-old Charlie. Then life began to spin out of control. Now newly divorced from Martin, she is suddenly a single parent, struggling to find time to write and make ends meet. She also begins drinking. Over time, a moderate habit becomes all-consuming, taking over her life, her work, and her ability to mother her child. When her ex-husband discovers Charlie alone in the house while Candace is at the store buying wine, her best-kept secret is discovered. As expected, the road to recovery is littered with potholes, but the story of Candace learning how not to drink is far from what might be expected. Her journey, heartbreakingly real, includes moments of pain and joy that feel earned. The reader is genuinely disappointed at every fall, cheered by each success. An emotionally absorbing story of the power of betrayed secrets and their potential to liberate.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)