The Sand Castle

March 3, 2008
Feisty Southern sisters Juts and Wheezy, of bestselling author Brown's Six of One trilogy, are back and as irascible as ever. The story unfolds in a single summer day in 1952, when the two make a day-trip to the beach accompanied by Jut's seven-year-old daughter, Nickel, and Wheezie's grandson, eight-year-old Leroy, whose mother has recently died. The day's events are simple: a long drive to the beach, the building of an elaborate sandcastle, a spat between sisters, lunch at a crab shack, a sudden injury and the drive back home. Brown creates palpable tension throughout, largely with tightly constructed dialogue. Nickel's teasing of grieving Leroy foreshadows the small catastrophe to come, and her cruelty contrasts with Juts's awkward attempts to draw her newly religious sister, still mourning the death of her daughter (Leroy's mother), back into the world. When the four return from lunch, Leroy receives a wound that rivals his inner pain. The sisters' collective response and Leroy's eventual release into sadness shape the end of the day, but not of the novel: the final three paragraphs elevate this tale from bittersweet to heartbreaking.

September 29, 2008
Aside from the overpackaging (the inch-thick plastic clamshell case holds just two CDs), everything about this lean presentation fits nicely together. Marguerite Gavin's crisp, clean delivery moves the story along at a clipped pace; her voice is as clear and bright as the sunny day on Chesapeake Bay it describes. Creating a distinct aural character for each of the five family members in this story through accent and delivery seems effortless for Gavin. Particularly well done is her treatment of the seven-year-old Nickel, the main character of the story, and the older, reminiscing Nickel who narrates the tale. To the listener, she is obviously the same character, though her age and role in the presentation varies. A Grove hardcover (Reviews, Mar. 3).

Starred review from April 1, 2008
Browns slim memory piece brings back some of her most beloved characters, sniping sisters Louise (Wheezie) and Julia (Juts) and the latters seven-year-old daughter, precocious Nickel, who stands in for the young Rita Mae in what is no moreand certainly no lessthan a long love letter to her family. Second cousin Leroy has recently lost his mother to cancer, so the trip to the waters edge at dawn is meant to assuage his pain and lighten his grief, though ants-in-her-pants Nickel gives him plenty of mischievous grief of a different kind. The four settle down to build an elaborate sand castle while the sisters start recalling their own childhood trips to the beach and wind up playing out their scrappy family script. The siblings scrap about religion, as usual, and righteous Wheezie drives away in outrage, only to return for the others in a little whileagain, as usual. A bizarre beach accident threatening eight-year-old Leroys private part brings them all back together, with ice and towels, in an outpouring of love, loss, and tears in this sad, funny, always moving snapshot of a sort of love letter in the sand.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)

May 1, 2008
This short novel brings back the infamous Hunsenmeir sisters previously introduced to readers in "Six of One" (1978), "Bingo" (1988), and "Loose Lips" (1999). The plot focuses on a 1952 day's outing to the seashore with the sisters Wheezie and Juts; Juts's seven-year-old daughter, Nickel (who narrates); and Leroy, her eight-year-old cousin. As the day wears on, the sisters bicker, as do Nickel and Leroy, and the story culminates in an incident meant to illustrate the importance of family. Though affectionately told, the story is a little too thin to stand as a novella; at 103 pages, it's also too long for a short story and too short for a novel. It almost seems as though this might have been cut from a larger work. Brown has been revisiting the Hunsenmeirs about every ten years or so and may have thought it was time to put the sisters back in the limelight. Fans of the story line will likely be interested, but other readers may find the work lacking. Recommended for large public libraries only. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 3/15/08.]Caroline Mann, Univ. of Portland Lib., OR

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