Owning Jolene

December 1, 1988
Writing with her usual sensitivity aug mented by a larky comic strain, Hearon has created her most appealing heroine in what is arguably her best novel so far. From the time she was seven, Jolene Temple has been a pawn between her feuding parents, each of whom has become practiced in kidnapping her from the other. She has been left emotionally suspended between two philosophies of life: that of her stolid, conventional father, ``always saving for a rainy day,'' and of her recklessly adventurous mother, ``always saying she enjoyed a little shower.'' Having adopted a different disguise each time her mother stole her away, at 19 Jolene is still unsure of her real identity; she is at ease only in acting a role. When she meets bland L. W. Dawson, she thinks he holds the answers to her quest to be ``normal.'' Meanwhile, however, she has been posing for, and has become the mistress of, middle-aged, twice-divorced artist Henry Wozencrantz, who has much to teach her about facing life without running away. Set in present-day Texas of oil-bust hard times (``the whole state is claiming Chapter Eleven''), the novel delivers wickedly funny, incisive social commentary as well as vivid, quirky characters as outsized as the Lone Star State. Hearon ( Five Hun dred Scorpions ) has hit her stride with this delightful, provocative story.

December 1, 1988
Skipping from the present and life as an artist's model to her past as a pawn between her mother and father, this is Jolene's story of changing identity. Always in disguise, as are most of the other characters in this novel set in post-boom San Antonio, Jolene finally comes to terms with herself as a famous replica of another famous model. Disguises, swindles, jokes, flashbacks, and other devices give this novel a decidedly jumpy style. The comedy is slight, the characters slick caricatures, and the plot one long series of escapades. Hearon's dialogue is good, and she captures poseurs to the life, but the overall result is minimal, if briefly entertaining. For fans of the author ( A Small Town, Five Hundred Scorpions) and readers who like the Texas style: fast, furious, spicy, but not very deep. Ann Donovan, Central Washingotn Univ. Lib., Ellensburg

Copyright 1988 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.