The Finishing School

by Gail Godwin

Book Overview

Justin Stokes would never forget the summer she turned fourteen, nor the woman who transformed her bleak adolescent life into a wondrous place of brilliant color. In the little pondside hut also known as the "finishing school," eccentric, free-spirited Ursula DeVane opened up a world full of magical possibilities for Justin, teaching her valuable lessons of love and loyalty, and encouraging her to change, to learn, to grow. But the lessons of the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345431901
• ISBN13: 9780345431905
• Release Date: April 1999
• Publisher: Ballantine Group
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Love Can Lead to Betrayal

This is a wonderful book. It is about young Justin Stokes' relationship with Ursula Devane, an older woman who is his mentor and guide. Their lives are inextricably connected until Justin ends up betraying Ursula as Ursula had once betrayed her own mother. I am a fan of Gail Godwin's and highly recommend this book. Another book of hers that I like very much is Violet Clay: A Novel.

finishing school

When teenager Justin Stokes goes for a bike ride one summer day, she doesn't expect to meet a woman who will change her life. With a flair for the dramatic and a tragic past, Ursula De Vane doesn't enter Justin's life so much as she explodes into it. Justin, longing to free the constraints of her conventional aunt, inquisitive baby brother and recently widowed mother, finds in Ursula the kindred desire not to live an ordinary life. But when past secrets threaten to undermine their relationship, can she find it in her to accept that Ursula is human and flawed after all. Told from the perspective of the adult Justin, now an actress, still haunted by that summer.

One of Godwin's best!

When this book was first released in the 1980's, I was an avid fan of Godwin's and couldn't wait to buy it. I devoured it in two sittings, loving every minute with teenage Justin and the wiser, more enigmatic Ursula. I'm pleased to see the story hasn't become dated, and that it's every bit as enjoyable now that I'm closer in age to Ursula than to Justin. Although this is on the surface a coming-of-age story, it also explores the necessity and dangers of mentorship, of friendship, of implicit trust. The characters are heartfelt and true, and Justin, with all her emotional needs and confusion, is one of the best female teenage characters in American literature. This book remains one of Godwin's best. If you haven't read Godwin before, start here.

Wonderful book!

This is an older book that I happened across by accident and found delightful. I think it would make a wonderful Hallmark t.v. movie with someone like Jena Malone playing the lead, perhaps opposite Judith Light or an actress who could capture "Ursula's" captivating character. This book reminds you of the "intensity" of growing up with all of it's desires and fears and frustrations. The climax leaves you frustrated that the girl is only 14 and cannot view her "idol" with the maturity of experience, but the ending is satisfying in that she is able to look back and realize how inaccurate her perceptions were at that age and to understand what she did gain from this woman in the long run. I highly recommend it.