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Thale’s Folly |
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Thale’s Folly by Dorothy GilmanBallantine Books 217 pages, 2000 ISBN 0449003655 Reviewed by Diane Gotfryd Hold on to your hats, this isn’t Mrs. Pollifax! After her long string of extremely successful books featuring senior spy Mrs. Pollifax, Gilman has written a stand-alone book that is not quite a mystery so much as it is an adventure. Likeable Andrew Thale, a hugely successful mystery author at the tender age of 25, now finds himself with a severe case of writer’s block. In fact, he is certain he will never write again. His depression and sudden floundering in a huge, impersonal world, while hoping for a meaningful existence, is something Gilman characterizes with the precision of a surgeon. Any writer who has experienced a true crisis in production will certainly identify with poor Andrew. Sent from Manhattan by his domineering father to assess a house and land left by a great-aunt, Andrew is startled to find himself in a remote part of Massachusetts and on the porch of a house that, far from being abandoned, is full of activity and happiness. The four occupants introduce themselves as the great-aunt’s guests, who have remained even after the lady’s death. Andrew finds himself drawn to these eccentric yet lovable characters and in particular, to the young and lovely Terragon. On their behalf, and feeling that at last he has a purpose in life, Andrew stands up to his father. Add in a missing will, a treasure hunt, a bank robber and a band of gypsies, and you more or less have a cozy that is enjoyable to read yet has no real book-length mystery plot. Read as an interlude, a fairy tale, or perhaps as Andrew’s personal quest, this is a very nice, soft book. |
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