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Summary
Summary
It can happen in the best of families--even the Fergusons. When Lynn and Robert first meet, she's bright, fresh-faced twenty-year old; he's handsome, a bit older, a charming young executive on the fast track. From the start they fall deeply in love, thrilled by the discovery of their mutual desire. But as early as their honeymoon the gold begins to tarnish, when Robert's anger erupts into a physical assault, one for which Lynn blames herself. To all appearances Lynn and Robert are living the ultimate American dream-a lovely home in an exclusive Connecticut suburb, a picture-perfect marriage, two beautiful children, a country club membership, and wonderful friends. But not even with their closest friends can Lynn reveal what is truly happening to her family. Their secret life is betrayed only is whispers of what goes on behind closed doors.
Author Notes
Belva Plain lives in northern New Jersey. She is the author of the bestselling novels "Evergreen", "Random Winds", "Eden Burning", "Crescent City", "The Golden Cup", "Tapestry", "Blessings", "Harvest", "Treasures", "Whispers", "Daybreak", "The Carousel", "Promises", "Secrecy", "Homecoming", "Legacy of Silence", "Fortune's Hand", and "After the Fire".
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Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Giving a contemporary twist to this bittersweet tale, accomplished storyteller Plain ( Tapestry ) revisits familiar terrain: the intricate landscape of an extended family. The Fergusons seem to have it all. Lynn runs their comfortable home in an affluent Connecticut suburb, her husband Robert is headed for a major position with his corporation and their eldest daughter Emily has been accepted at Yale. But it's a facade. Robert's inexplicable rages lead him to physically abuse Lynn; at times he is cruelly dictatorial with Emily and her troubled younger sister Annie. Passive and confused Lynn convinces herself that Robert is just a particularly demanding husband and father. But counsel from her sharply perceptive and independent friend Josie, combined with the shrewd advice of a calculating womanizer and an afternoon with Robert's aunt force her to face her family's problems. By avoiding melodrama and sentiment, by getting under the skin of each of her diverse characters, Plain delivers a story of considerable impact. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections. (May) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
The plight of the battered wife is the subject of Plain's latest (Treasures, 1992; Harvest, 1990, etc.)--in which an Iowa- bred suburban Connecticut housewife and mother suffers the sporadic rages of a successful career husband. ``To live with Robert was to dwell in sunlight for months and months; then suddenly a flashing storm would turn everything into darkness....'' Although Robert at first blamed Lynn for the drowning death of their toddler, he had been cautioned in his judgment by wiser heads, and now, in 1988, Robert and Lynn live--to the public at least--in harmony in a comfortable house filled with tasteful things: ``Either the best or nothing'' is Robert's dictum. Handsome, certainly involved with his family, hard-working, and on his way up, Robert, who also enjoys giving thoughtful gifts, is surely still the man Lynn fell in love with. But a dinner jacket not packed for an important business trip, a crazy suspicion of interest in another man, too sharp an argument, then--the violence, followed by Robert's cringing apology. Some friends and acquaintances ``know''--kind Bruce and his dying wife, Josie; lawyer Tom Lawrence, who seems to take an unusually strong interest in Lynn; and the family of teenaged Harris, boyfriend of Lynn and Robert's daughter Emily. Meanwhile, the children, Emily and Annie, seek their own refuges and rebellions, but it is not until after the birth of baby Bobby--and some sleuthing that reveals the truth about Robert's first marriage--that Lynn accepts her loss--and is nearly murdered. This time out, Plain covers the essentials in her psychological profiles of batterer and batteree--in a straightforward tale about a gentle woman determined to make the best of things and a man whose bright blue eyes can suddenly blaze black. A shoo-in, of course. (Literary Guild Dual Selection for Spring)
Booklist Review
Plain's latest is impeccably done and ought to please her large readership. It isn't literature, to be sure, but it's the kind of book that reminds us that, since its inception, the novel has been used for instruction and consolation. Richardson's epistolary novels were originally meant to teach good letter-writing style. The biggest nineteenth-century U.S. best-sellers were as much manuals of moral conduct and Christian reassurance as good stories. Indeed, many weren't very good stories, and neither is Whispers. It's the chronicle of the domestic crises of an upper-middle-class woman married to an ambitious, image-obsessed executive who flies into violent rages when he feels thwarted. Yes, she's the long-suffering spouse of a wife beater--a setup right out of the so-called four-hankie movies of the 1930s through 1950s that used to star actresses named Joan, Jane, Jean, and June. Plain's purposes in rehearsing this scenario again are to illustrate what an abusive relationship is, to inculcate that it can afflict women in even the best strata of society, to sympathetically model getting out of such a situation, and to stress how difficult getting out can be even--perhaps especially--for a good, smart, talented woman. She succeeds admirably and affectingly, and her heroine's trials and eventual triumphs will instruct and console a huge audience. (Reviewed Mar. 15, 1993)0385299281Ray Olson
