August 5, 2013
Anna, the eponymous golden baby, is born to anthropologist Jess Speight in 1960s London. Anna is sweet-natured, pretty, and, it turns out, developmentally disabled: she’ll never live on her own or learn to read. And though she’s fatherless, her mother is smart, dedicated, and loving, and the two are surrounded by a community of mothers who watch over each other. One of these mothers narrates Jess’s story from the vantage point of a friendship that has lasted to the present day. The passage of time—the narrator often compares their “innocent world” where cholesterol hadn’t yet been “invented” to the less innocent but more politically correct present—is a primary focus of the book, as is aging, changing views about care of the challenged and the disabled, and the randomness not only of genes but destinies: how much did Jess’s early trip to Africa influence her life? Why does one of the children in Jess and Anna’s neighborhood end up in jail? But the book merely circles these issues. Occasionally, as when Jess takes up with dashing photographer Bob, the narrator’s tone grows breathless, even ominous, and we expect a big event, but there is none. In the end, very little happens, and though Drabble’s intelligence is evident, the story drags.
May 15, 2013
Reversing her dire 2009 announcement that she would stop writing fiction, Drabble offers a wrenching but clear-eyed look at the responsibilities of motherhood. Pregnant owing to an affair with a married professor, graduate student Jessica Speight gives birth to glowy Anna, but it soon becomes apparent that Anna will never be a normal child. With a 30,000-copy first printing.
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
September 1, 2013
Anna is the daughter of anthropologist and writer Jessica Speight and is her "pure gold baby"--a happy and loving child with special needs and capabilities. As a single mother in 1960s London, Jess navigates career, relationships, and the National Health Service with compromise, determination, and the help of a close-knit circle of friends, including the narrator, an attorney and mother. Readers follow Anna and Jess for four decades amid frequent musings on parenthood, aging, mental health care, and London's changing neighborhoods. Through it all are woven accounts of Jess's lifelong anthropological research interests, studied mostly at a distance. This is an intimate look at a small family and its circle, told with wit, sensitivity, and deft knowledge of the household details of its setting. Drabble, the distinguished author of more than two dozen novels (e.g., The Radiant Way; The Seven Sisters) and works of nonfiction (The Oxford Companion to English Literature), is a masterly storyteller and a preeminent chronicler of modern life. VERDICT Readers who yearn for well-crafted fiction full of thoughtful ideas and observations should welcome this heartily. [See Prepub Alert, 4/15/13.]--Jennifer B. Stidham, Houston Community Coll. Northeast
Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.