At Paradise Gate [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Each of the daughters view their parents from a personal perspective, especially their mother, Anna, projecting their own disillusionment onto her. Meanwhile Anna, mostly silent, muses about the grown daughters who surround her, wondering how they all came to live so close, gather so readily like a flock of restless birds, when she had meant to teach them to fly. Two daughters already widowed, one divorced, the women have all outlived the men, save Ike, and have lost their balance.

When granddaughter Christine comes home to visit, as well, she brings her own distractions. Twenty-three and newly married, Christine is full of the natural exhuberance of youth. The three daughters shift their attention back and forth, from Ike's worsening health to Christine's surprising announcement.

Occasionally a small voice from upstairs calls to Anna, "Mother! Mother!". Ike wishes only his wife to tend to his few needs. Moving between the two realities, Anna finds time for reflection upon her fifty-some years of marriage. In Anna's ruminations, there is a quiet revelation of her life through the years, as a young girl, as a married woman, years spent washing, cooking, cleaning. Years of service given without a thought to feelings or needs, or to the vagaries of married love. Looking back, her memories are as sharp as thorns and as sweet as new-shelled peas.

The power of the family dynamic seems at first to rest with the daughters, each pushing for her own resolution. They form temporary alliances, based on sibling rivalry, change perspective, shift yet again. Anna finds them engaged in their own busy pursuits; even the granddaughter falls into a deep afternoon slumber. Ultimately, it is Anna who holds our focus in this well crafted novel, her thoughts, her dreams. Never mundane or banal, the dialog is as sharp as the plot.

The older you get, the more assertive you become, the more you know what to say or how to behave yourself in a tough situation. Right? Not really, if one is to look at Anna. She is just as insecure at 72 as she was in her youth. If one is to hope for invaluable wisdom as a payoff for lack of energy, strength, health, looks, etc., we are all screwed. This was my secret hope, and i am now very disappointed. Anna has been feeling weak as long as she can remember, first with her mother, then with her husband and his family, now with her daughters and even her granddaughter. What i find most pathetic is her inability to resolve her resentments towards her husband when she should have. She did not deal with whatever he did to her at its right time, and now that he is sick and almost an invalid is not the time to bring things up, yet Anna can't help herself. As a character, she infuriates me. If you don't do the right thing at the right time (in this case, deal with your husband), then let it go. Don't store it up and let it fester for decades. The rest of the family is sad and well portrayed. Ike is a sick man angry at the world for whatever obscure reason. Helen is pretentious. Claire is envious. Susanna is on the same path Anna is right now. Christine is the perfect example of why marriage and reproduction should not be allowed for anyone under 30. What's with her sense of entitlement and arrogance? At one point, her own mother calls her a 'dope'. Well put!

My two objections are Dolores, who is referred to time and time again and is never developed as a character (by comparison, Abel is very well described and understood), and Christine's final decision. It doesn't make sense, after spending half the book defending her arguments to now change her mind so quickly.

In this novel, which takes place in 36 hours, we get to know a family with generational problems and character problems. The imperfections of these characters make them real, and although none of them is lovable, they form a beautiful book. The detail and thoroughness that Jane Smiley goes through is remarkable.