Things Unspoken

by Anitra Sheen

Book Overview

The halcyon days of Los Angeles in the '50s are the seductive setting for this mesmerizing first novel. After her mothers death, four-year-old Jorie grows up with her two slightly older brothers and mostly absent physician father. As narrated with sardonic wit by an adult Jorie, the brothers become increasingly wild, while young Jorie becomes the central force holding the unorthodox household together. Although she treasures the little family time...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811823555
• ISBN13: 9780811823555
• Release Date: May 1999
• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Heartbreaking Reality

This was a book I finished in one day. Very Good! It is a coming of age sort of novel narrated by a young girl, Jorie. Jorie and her two brothers lost their mother when they were very young and raised by their father, a doctor. This was back in the 1950's when life was different, people saw things differently. The father neglected them terribly and they basically raised themselves.These three children struggle with themselves and trying to understand their father. It is a sad story yet it is one of survival and how one can truly survive unthinkable things in their life.

HOW NOT TO RAISE CHILDREN...

Not that the parents depicted in this story are bad people -- this is not a story of abuse, but rather a story of parental ineptitude. The amazing thing about it -- and this is amazing when it occurs in 'real life' as well -- is the resilience of the children involved, how they wind up reaching down within themselves to draw upon their common sense and inner strength in order to carry on.The story is set in the early to mid 1950s in Los Angeles -- a simpler, more naive time, when the air was still clean enough not to send the residents into coughing fits. The MacKinnon family is made up of three children -- the narrator, Jorie, has two older brothers -- and a set of parents that apparently haven't a clue about raising children. I suppose we should give the mother the benefit of the doubt -- she dies of polio very early in the book, and she was evidently the glue that held everything together. With her gone, the father is about as hapless as they come. He's not stupid -- he's a respected doctor with several Hollywood luminaries among his patients -- but his ideas about letting his children learn from their mistakes and finding their own way, instead of offering them guidance, leads to one disaster after another.More than a lack of guidance, it is Dr. MacKinnon's inability to express love to his children that hurts them the most, although Jorie seems to be the only one to admit it. There were times I felt that he completely lacked the ability to grasp the concept of love -- he repeatedly calls it an 'overused' word. His ideas of gender roles -- typical of the 50s, and, sadly, still in evidence today -- are stifling as well. He dumps every single household chore onto Jorie's shoulders -- 'women's work' he calls it, beneath the dignity of the 'men' of the house.The author has chosen the perfect narrator in Jorie -- her outlook and views are the most stable of the household. As she watches her family disintegrate around her, she makes some very valid, poignant observations -- and she becomes more and more determined that there will be love in her life, that she will take the reins and be her own guide. Her determination and courage are inspiring -- and the voice given her by Ms. Sheen in a compelling and authentic one, never leeving me with the feeling that an adult was telling the story through the mouth of a child.

Unusual and Inspiring family saga

Anitra Sheen's "Things Unspoken" beautifully explains and portrays the range of human emotions and adaptive behaviors of children and adults in their individual "family" settings. In a read I found hard to put down from beginnning to end, I was fascinated by the characters "decision making" as their lives progressed. For those New Yorkers and everyone cpativated by "Angela's Ashes", "Things Unspoken" is a must read!! You will laugh, cry, be shocked, but most all be inspired by the resilency of the human spirit in both children and adults. You constantly watch the struggle of good and evil being played out based on the life decisions people make! I applaud Jorie in the end--for making a truly difficult and correct "life" decision. She could take the easy way out--but doesn't and the reader knows her life will be better for it.Ms. Sheen is a great storyteller and I anxiously await her next book.

Flawless Storytelling

I love finding books like this. Things Unspoken is storytelling at it's best, simple and beautifully written. The story of three motherless children left to essentially fend for themselves while their physician father pursues his career and his 'things unspoken", is both heartbreaking and uplifting. Set in the 1950's and 60's, Jorie and her brothers experience a strange life, removed of friends and family, their closest mother figure an alcoholic housekeeper who eventually like the others must be sent away. Desperate for the approval and affection of their distant (and in today's perspective), negligent father, each child must find their own way to deal with the hand they have been dealt. This novel could have been weepy and melodramatic, but it is neither. The author does not pursue the "dysfunction of the week" route, she tells us the story and allows the reader to watch what unfolds. This is a superb novel. There is a reason the reviewers are all giving it 5 stars. Read it now!

Uniquely immediate and compelling exploration of a family.

Anrita Sheen presents a cleareyed and unselfpitying narrativeof a family in which the children--including the indelible characterof the narrator, Jorie MacKennon--are effectively left to raise themselves. In the wake of their Mother's death, their physician father provides the children with a breadth of freedom which operates both to distort thier childhood while allowing an eccentric opportunity for their self-realization. As the book progresses, and the narrator matures, a looming sense of impending disaster accellerates the narrative thrust. The author avoids every cliche, creating a sense of arresting immediacy. Furthermore, the subtle intelligence of the writing perfectly captures the worldview of a child while providing the simultaneous resonance of the mature woman's hardwon forgiveness. This is a piece of genuinely literary fiction that I would recommend to anyone.