"Remembering Pearl Harbor," the subtitle of Marilyn Brown's novelHouse on the Sound published by Salt Press in 2001 seemedmisleading to me at first reading. The setting in time and place wasappropriate. It began in a little coastal town in Washington State atthe time of the bombing of Pearl Harbor when the entire west coast ofthe U.S. had geared up for possible attack. Windows darkened withblack paper, and closets turned into hiding places for children andadults alike signified the sense of fear the community endured. Butthe story was not about Pearl Harbor, nor fear of the Japanese. Itwas about a beautiful young woman in a red coat named Sarah whocaptured the attenion of Lindy, a little girl whose family livednearby, and who is the novel's storyteller.
There is something evil about Sarah and her family, and the reader isled to that understanding through the juxtaposition of Lindy'sfascination and her family's insistance that "It would be best to stayaway from there." The subplot turned out to fit well with Sarah'sstory, parallelling it in remarkable ways. Secrets on both sidesprotect the innocent as well as the guilty making it difficult tochoose a place of safety. In creating the story's plot the authordevelops characters, both good and evil, who are multifaceted, lettingthe reader see the good side of evil, and the evil side of good, andmaking him feel comfortable, for a time, in the presence of the firstand ill at ease with the second. At the same time she spins anentertaiing yarn that keeps the reader turning pages.
Dorothy W. Peterson http://www.lds-index.org dorothy@lds-index.org Copyright © 2002 Dorothy W. Peterson < dorothy@lds-index.org >