AT PARADISE GATE

An early Jane Smiley novel explores shifting family relationships. Seventy-seven-year-old Ike is dying, and his loving wife is joined by their three daughters and a grown granddaughter. What could have been a mawkishly sentimental glop is actually, in Smiley's capable hands, a graceful and compelling domestic drama. Narrator Anna Fields is out-standing in her characterizations, particularly the mother's, and is sympathetically involved with the four adult women as they come to grips with impending sadness, frictions, and friendships. T.H. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: OCT/NOV 00]