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Gwendolen Gross' critically acclaimed first novel, Field Guide, was issued by Henry Holt in April 2001, and her second, Getting Out, is forthcoming in 2002. Harcourt, Inc. will issue a paperback edition of Field Guide in spring 2002. Ms. Gross lives in New Jersey with her husband, their son and daughter, and a chocolate lab. To learn more about the author visit www.GwendolenGross.com.
Photograph © Chia Messina
Getting Out
When Hannah Blue joins the Adventurer's Club, she pictures campfires and star-filled nights. She imagines a temporary respite from the ever-present shadow of her parents' divorce, and her older brother and younger sister's seeming inability to cope in the real world without her vigilance. And most of all, she can draw away from her father, whose unpredictable moods and imaginary health scares have always placed him at the center of the family universe. It's also a chance to spend some time away from her boyfriend, Ben, who, it seems, is ready for a serious commitment --- and maybe even to start a family of his own.When her father's latest illness turns out to be real, Hannah finds herself growing addicted to the escape she finds in the silty caves deep beneath the sunlit woods, on the crevasses accessible only with crampons and ice axes. Some of her adventures are more dangerous than others, but everyone in the Club has always survived --- or have they? Hannah feels it’s worth the risk, and soon it’s as if she feels more herself when she's outside --- until she realizes that the people she keeps leaving may not always wait for her to come back.
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Gwendolen Gross' Summer Reading List
The Idea of Perfection
by Kate Grenville
A rural Australian setting (one of my favorite places in both the real and imagined world), a bridge between two sides of a river and two isolated characters. The characters are not teenagers, which adds to the appeal for me.
Among the Missing
by Dan Chaon
With beer, not coffee: Dan Chaon's Among the Missing, which I read about on Readerville.com, is a collection of short stories that boasts some eccentric secondary characters (a foul-mouthed macaw, an inflatable Safety Man (okay, maybe he's more like a prop)), and underlying themes I'll need to be brave to face-lost children, lost love, the human condition. It sounds painful but profound.
Sister Noon
by Karen Joy Fowler
For funny Sister Noon by Karen Joy Fowler is hailed as subversive, clever, and mysterious. It's just out in paperback, so it'll be easy to carry tothe pool!
Best Friends
by Martha Moody
read about this book in the Oberlin Alumni Magazine-her character goes to our mutual alma mater, and I'm eager to see whether it renders nostalgia, and how a Midwestern Protestant and a west coast Jew learn from each other.
Flesh Tones
by M.J. Rose
Promises to be a page-turner. This is a courtroom drama-not my usual fare, but a guilty pleasure for summer. In her earlier books Rose's characters were multifaceted, and the tension built from page one. I'm interested to see what she comes up with this time.
Home Cooking
by Laurie Colwin
And last, but never least, I always reread some of Laurie Colwin's novels and Home Cooking, a sort of memoir-cookbook every summer. There's always something new to notice in her work, the tastes, the scents, her hot-pavement New York and summer escapes upstate, that inspire me as reader and writer.
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