Show 4D Sunday October 23 1988 Standard-Examin- er HorizonsBooks History rebirth gives old house a reads By BECKY CAIRNS Standard Examiner start SALT LAKE CITY — For Elizabeth Winthrop looking at her grandmother’s old Connecticut farmhouse is now as painful as “looking at a corpse" In Winthrop’s childhood the white house was a beloved summer haven She remembers splashing in a wading pool under a huge beech tree in the yard playing in the attic with her cousins and visiting the cow barn with her grandfa- ther But things changed when Winthrop’s grandmother died and the house was sold Now the farmlands are a golf course Hedges have grown up over the house’s windows The shutters need painting Yet Winthrop has given the old house a rebirth of sorts by using it as the setting for her new book “In My Mother’s House” (Doubleday $1995) “I have peopled (the house) with characters and nobody can move them out” said the New York author who was in Salt Lake City recently to promote her book novel follows three generThe ations of Webster family women whose lives the book says “were threaded in and out of that white farmhouse in like the piece of string a bird weaves into its nest” Published in June “In My Mother’s House” is in its third printing and the paperback rights have already been purchased Winthrop says the book has several “rave” reviews to its credit and is doing well — for a “first” novel Actually Winthrop has written 30 other books — 7 novels included — for children Two of her teenage novels were named Best Books for Young Adults by the American Library Association and her fantasy novel “Castle in the Attic” received the 1987 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award Even with 15 years of writing behind her the New Yorker said people react differently now that she has penned an adult book “Oh you've finally written a novel” she quoted some people as saying Or others tell her “I must read that book of yours” — a comment she rarely hears when she writes a children’s book “I get frustrated by this terrible ghetto children's books are put into” the author said “They are not taken seriously” That's unfortunate she added because “Some of the best writing being done these days is being done for children” One of the things that sets “In My Mother's House” apart from many adult first-flo- 523-pa- or ge Nor-thingt- on ‘I get frustrated by this like saga terrible ghetto children’s books are put into They are not taken seriously Some of the best writing being done these days is being done for children’ — Elizabeth Winthrop novels is its emphasis on children Winthrop said her experience in writing from “inside children’s minds” helped her tell the stories of Lydia Charlotte and Molly as both children and adults The novel begins with Lydia a whose mother has just died in childbirth Lydia grows up in New York in a strict and joyless household with an inattentive father Life looks brighter for the girl when Uncle James comes to live with the family He and Lydia become close companions going to the zoo for bicycle rides or out for chocolate sodas He lavishes Lydia with the love no one else has given her But the story takes a tragic twist when Uncle James starts sexually abusing Lydia Though the abuse ultimately ends it leaves permanent scars on Lydia who eventually marries and settles in her husband’s Connecticut farmhouse The story continues with Lydia’s relationship to her daughter Charlotte and finally her granddaughter Molly A painter Molly is the one who discovers her grandmother’s secret and tries to confront old hurts — and heal them Winthrop said her book says a lot about family secrets “That’s always been my message — the terrible consequences of silence” she said When people cannot be open about their fears or feelings or problems “it pollutes the stream below” the author said In Lydia’s case the pollution ran downstream through her daughter and granddaughter’s lives Although her story is fiction Winthrop said the tale is dropped into the historical context of her own family most notably that of her grandmother Corinne Roosevelt Alsop niece of Theodore Roosevelt Lydia Webster is like Winthrop’s grandmother in many ways — born the same year married the same year elected as the first woman member of the Connecticut state legislature in the same year and GREENLANDERS By Jane Smiley Alfred A Knopf $1995 Long before Roanoke Island’s Lost Colony vanished into time and legend there were the Greenlanders They lived in g eval Europe’s most settled a by the in colony outpost 10th century Vikings in the For 500 or so years the several thousand settlers flourished in the harsh land and the boats came Iceregularly from Norway and the plague swept land But then Europe and the boats came less and less frequently The Greenlanders were left to themselves Years passed and by the time the next boats came the GreenlandTHE late-med- ifar-flun- ers were gone Tom Clancy has returned to top form in his latest noveL “The Cardinal of the Kremlin” It is a stunning comeback after “Patriot Games” a disappointing departure from Clancy's solid sty le of writing and storytelling Clancy author of the “The Hunt for Red October” and “Red Storm Rising" is known for his ability to take technical details and weave them into - best-sellin- g a gripping and fascinating story Strategic defense is the topic in this story which cuts back and forth to various locales in the United States the Soviet Union and Afghanistan Jack Ryan last seen battling terrorists in “Patriot Games” is now’ working for the CIA’s team His current assignment involves the monitoring of certain strategic weapons systems within the Soviet Union er” Originally Winthrop set out to simply write a book about her grandparents “I thought their lives would unroll before me like a magic carpet” she said “Nothing could have been further from the truth” Soon she realized that even though she spent every summer and most Christmases with her grandparents she just didn’t have enough details to write their story “I didn't know (grandmother) when she was a child or when she was 18 or when she was 25” she said “I had to make up a whole new person” When the family angle didn’t work out as planned Winthrop panicked and struggled with the book’s focus for years immersing herself in research that did little to advance her story After two unsatisfactory drafts the author sat down again with her stacks of re- search and her characters to figure out hat she wanted to say Then out of the 20 major characters she said “The one that hooked me was Uncle James” Though he’d been in the book all along — and was carrying on with the parlor Wee-- 1 Paperback fiction 1 Murder in the CIA Margaret ‘Truman Fawcett Crest $495 2 Her Mother’s Daughter Marilyn $595 French Ballantine True 3 Small Sacrifices: Murder and of Passion Story Ann Rule NALSignct $495 4 Heaven Cent: Xanth No 11 Piers Anthony Aon $395 5 Lonigan Louis L'Amcur Bantam $350 Harold 6 Team Yankee Covne Berkley $495 7 Presumed Innocent Scott Turow Warner Books $495 8 A Southern Family Gail Goodwin As on $495 9 Heaven and Hell John Jakes Dell $595 10 Patriot Games Tom Gan-c- y Berkley A $495 Paperback nonfiction 1 The Dark Tower The Gu- nslinger Stephen King NAL Flume $1095 2 The Essential Calvin and Hobbes Bilh Wattcrson Andrews A McMccI $1295 3 Tales Too Ticklish to Tell Berke Breathed Little Brown $795 Nancy Pate Orlando Sentinel OGDEN V v The story line is complicated but never tangles Clancy holds the reader's attention right up to the novel's final pages X - V:! Carol Deegan Associated Press Clancy takes Ryan through his paces including an incredible V L " t A £ 'y Wl&t' 4 Night of the Crash-TeDummies Garv Larson Andrews JL McNeel $595 5 Beloved Toni Morrison NAL Plume $895 6 Love Medicine & Miracles Bernie S Siegel Harper Row 'Perennial Library $895 7 Codependent No More: How to Stop Controlling Others and Start Caring for Yourself Harper & Melody Beattie st Here are the best sellers for the week ending Oct 21 compiled from data from independent and chain bookstores book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide worry about survival contending with the elements and the fur- -' clad Skraelings whom the colo- nists regard as demons There are seal hunts and marriage feasts but there also is famine and sickness and isolation Smiley describes all in rich detail and her steadily paced narra- tive takes on a hypnotic quality In such previous works as “At Paradise Gate” and “The Age of Grief” she has proved adept at charting the interior lives of contemporary characters not” arms-negotiati- Row Hazelden S895 8 Something Under the Bed Is Drooling: A Calvin and Hobbes Collection Bill Watter-so- n Andrews JL McMeel $695 The Road Less Traveled Nl Scott Peck Simon JL Schuster Touchstone $995 10 The Power of Myth Joseph Campbell with Bill Mosers Doubleday $1995 9 9 Final Flight Stephen Coonts Doubleday $1895 10 The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris St Martin’s $1895 Hardcover nonfiction 1 A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes Stephen W Hawking Bantam $1895 2 The Cholesterol Cure Robert Kowalski Harper & Row $1795 3 Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive Harvey Mackay Morrow $1495 4 The Ragman’s Son Kirk Douglas Simon & Schuster $2195 5 All You Can Do Is All You Can Do but All You Can Do Is Enough AL Williams Thomas SI 495 Landslide: The Unmaking of the President Nelson Hardcover fiction 6 The Cardinal of the Kremlin Tom Clancy Putnam $1995 2 Breathing Lessons Anne Tsler Knopf $1895 3 Till We Meet Again Judith Krantz Crown $1995 4 Spock’s World Diane Duane Pocketbooks $1695 5 Alaska James Michener Random House $2251 6 Koko Peter Straub Dutton $1995 7 Prime Time Joan Collins Simon & Schuster $1995 8 The Bonfire of the Vanities GiTom Wolfe Farrar Straus roux $195 1 i 1984-198- 8 Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus Houghton Miflin $2195 7 The Boz: Confessions of a o Brian Modern with Rich Reillv Doubleday $1795 8 The Lives of John Lennon Morrow Albert Goldman $2295 9 Senatorial Privilege: The Leo Chappaquiddick Cover-UDamore Regnery Gateway $2195 10 Surviving the Great Depression of 1990 Ravi Batra Simon A Schuster S1835 Bos-wor- th Anti-Her- p ©EE® I I I I I I l GET MOVEMBER FREES Lose up to 5 lbs a weeksome clients lose even more R1WEIGHT UJLOSS CLINICf Supervised by specially trained nurses Stabilization program keeps weight Our Nurses wake off for good No prepackaged foods to buy 4- - the difference 4305 Harrison Blvd FOOTHILL VILLAGE 14X) HCLLASAY v CUTTER Fjothlii Dr V5 E 22 2 583 1533 4Sno S 272 7373 I FT ST A VILLAGE j FIVER PCIYTE iA ard MastetCatd weccire Cpeaaam t T “ Individual results may vary you must need to lose at least 30 pounds if you need to lose less we’ll Rive ou up to 40 any program) New clients only Offer valid with purchase of a new program only OGDEN topm -- feuds Always the Greenlanders must Loss Clime Weight comes to g Best sellers PubiiSrte’S maid — James had not been sexually abusive of Lydia But Winthrop had never liked the fictional uncle saying “He gave me the creeps” Once she discovered her hook in early 1986 Winthrop said “the book wrote itself” and was finished by December six years after she started it Winthrop grew up in Washington DC in a family of writers The daughter of journalist Stewart Alsop she remembers coming home from school in the afternoons and hearing the “tap tap tap of my father’s Underwood typewriter” As a writer Winthrop said she always has her finger in several pies Now she’s working on a picture book for young children a sequel to “Castle in the Attic” and is forming an idea for another adult novel Working on different types of books not only keeps her writing but “stretches different kinds of writing muscles” she said The author is also a partner in Editor’s business that edits and Ink a year-ol- d evaluates manuscripts by mail Many would-b- e writers are frustrated by the lack of feedback from publishers about their work Winthrop said “We help people sort out whether they've got a worthwhile manuscript or dying the same year “She lived in my grandmother’s house and wore her clothes” Winthrop said of Lydia “But she was not my grandmoth- scene on a Russian runway (To say more would spoil the story) The author has also created an array of interesting characters to match Ryan’s style and class including Col Mikhail Filitov the “old and bold” spy inside the Soviet Union heart-stoppin- What happened to the Green- landers? Most historians agree" that they probably were victims of both an increasingly cruel climate and the native Eskimo population In her new historical novel “The Greenlanders” Jane Smiley also proposes that the colonists’ clinging to European ways and subsequent failure to adapt to their environ- ment eventually contributed to their downfall Smiley tells her story in the manner of a Norse saga interweaving story after story of sever- ’ al generations of Greenlanders their births and marriages and deaths their adventures their Elizabeth Winthrop uses her grandmother’s house as the setting for her novel ‘In My Mother’s House’ Tom Clancy returns to top form OF THE THE CARDINAL KREMLIN By Tom Clancy Putnam 543 Pages $1995 - ' ‘ 8 OFF 4768912 S673 S Hchlar-- I Dr C9 'Sandy! 1605 W 9000 S W Jordan) 566 919t Iv'sn sa m tolpm fi SLOP -- ' ‘ ' |