The Last Noel
Scarcely a month after J.F.K.'s assassination, two  seven-year-old children-a spoiled, white North Carolina girl  born on Christmas Eve and a poor, street-smart Philadelphia  black boy born hours later on Christmas Day-take a sleigh ride  early Christmas morning and begin a lifelong friendship. After  an intriguing opening, this earnest fable about social change  from veteran novelist Divided into 12 unevenly spaced  vignettes-each set during the Christmas season-the plot traces  the star-crossed friendship of Noni Tilden, daughter of her  town's richest family, and Kaye King, grandson of Noni's  mother's maid, across a span of four decades. The familiar  characters verge on stereotypes: Noni's father, Bud, is a  hard-drinking former basketball jock; her mother a snobby  socialite; her brother, Wade, a bigoted, scheming land  developer. Aunt Ma, Kaye's grandmother, is a kind but tough  woman who "knows to keep her place in a white man's world."  Malone (First Lady) also has a corny way of introducing bits of  race-related history and period details into the narrative  ("Judy's doing it. It's called aerobics," says one cocktail  party guest to another). The story does pick up some momentum  about two-thirds of the way through,  and readers who stay the  course will be rewarded with a sentimental, fitfully affecting  drama of sibling feuds and divorces, loss and reconciliation.  (Nov.)  Forecast: Sourcebooks Landmark is counting on Malone's  crowd-pleasing abilities to make this a big Christmas book-a  100,000 first printing is planned. The price is definitely  right, and a strong marketing campaign and seven-city author  tour should help, though the book will face stiff competition  from other Christmas releases and classics.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.