Tender Grace
The literature of widowhood is compelling—Joan Didion'sA Year of Magical Thinkinghad an impact well beyond her usual readership. Novelist Stark, a retired English teacher who's not afraid to invoke the great classic poets, makes a lovely debut in this story of Audrey Eaton, a widow whose road trip is also a healing journey. That plot device is not new, but Eaton's writing is fresh and delicate, successfully expressing nuance in a narrative that is mostly about emotions, not events. Her dialogue is witty and easy; an interlude at a homeless shelter is nice comic relief. The Christian elements required for the evangelical audience are natural for the plot—lots of bereaved people derive comfort from renewed faith. But they're slightly overdone; God's work can be apparent in a story of transformation even without explicit labeling, especially with a narrator given to dignified understatement. If Stark's next book does more showing and less telling with the elements of faith, she could gain the larger audience she deserves.(Feb.)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.