DREAMS OF FALLING by Karen White
Karen white has risen through the ranks of the best southern authors to come to a position among the top two or three. She has done this by making each of her novels just a little bit better than the previous one. In short she has developed her craft and now she is where she aspired to be, where she was meant to be. DREAMS OF FALLING is her best book yet and it emphasizes how great White has become at character and plot development. No one reading this book could consider her anything other than a master writer.
In this book White returns to a theme she developed in previous books – the role of the outsider in the story. Larkin Lanier grew up in Georgetown, South Carolina. She had an amazing childhood but right after her senior year in high school something occurred that sent her fleeing to New York City. She stayed there for nine years and then only returned because her mother Ivy had gone missing.
White tells Larkin’s story by placing the events in the sbook in two time periods. One story takes place in 2010, the other in 1951. To understand the modern day story you have to revisit the past. This is a lesson Larkin learns slowly over a period of time after she has returned home.
In the past the story of three young women unfolds. They are Margaret, Ceecee and Bitty. Margaret was Larkin’s grandmother, a beautiful but tragic figure whose lifestyle and activities affected her two best friends and later her daughter and granddaughter. Margaret was a Darlington, a family some said had been kissed by luck while others called it cursed. She lived at Carrowmore, the family estate, and her future was as bright as could be.
In 1951 the three girls had gone to the Tree of Dreams that was on the Carrowmore property. They had written notes of their dearest wishes and placed them in the trunk of the tree. They had not really taken this seriously but they had hopes for the possibility of it all coming true. As the years passed it seemed their fates were interwoven with these dreams.
In the more present time Larkin finds that some of her dreams as a girl in Georgetown are still on her mind. She discovers the boy with whom she was as madly in love with as any teenage girl could be, is still in Georgetown. And he is still as good looking and charming as she remembered.
She also reconnects with her childhood friends Mabrey and Bennett. These twins were the ones who were a constant in her childhood. They too remain in Georgetown and their closeness has not diminished.
White takes this rather large cast of characters and makes each one special to the reader. She also sets up her plot secrets with perfect timing, never letting a necessary plot point be revealed until it is exactly the right time.
There is a lushness to Karen White’s writing. She has a wealth of words at her fingertips and she combines them in just the right order. Readers will find the book full of drama, mystery and passion in degrees that make the pages vibrate with intensity. You will leave this story sated with storytelling of the first order.
Good books will come and go this summer but DREAMS OF FALLING will still be attracting readers when the first hint of fall fills the air. It is thoroughly enjoyable.
DREAMS OF FALLING is published by Berkley. It contains 416 pages and sells for $26.00.
Jackie K Cooper
www.jackiekcooper.com
