Iron Shoes (Thorndike Press Large Print Basic Series) - Hardcover

Giles, Molly

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786230789 ISBN 13: 9780786230785

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2001

Synopsis

Kay Sorenson is stuck. She is forty years old and still trying -- and failing -- to please her glamorous, willful, and indifferent parents. She abandoned a promising music career, settled into a loveless marriage, became a careless mother, and began to drink, smoke, and daydream too much. But when her mother dies, Kay is left without her lifelong crutch and is finally forced to take her first tentative steps toward becoming the woman she wants to be.

About this title

Review:

Marooned in a loveless marriage and on the cusp of a full-blown mid-life crisis, Kay Sorensen hardly needs the additional grief of tending to a dying parent. Tribulations compound however: as she frets over her manipulative and fading mother, Ida, she must also reckon with her father's indifference, her husband's insufficiencies and--she fears--her own squandered potential. Such is the treacherous and often bitterly comedic territory Molly Giles wanders in her first novel, Iron Shoes, where the Northern California semi-serenity fails to allay one family's apparent disintegration.

As Kay puts in her part-time hours paging at the local library, she ponders her as-yet-undiscovered true calling and indulges fantasies of an affair. It's almost a relief to be distracted from her immobilising frustrations by her mother's decline. Full of bitter and contentious self-pity, Ida trudges downward gracelessly. Her death provokes ever-worsening pangs of self-doubt in Kay, as she and her condemnatory father fumble to make sense of their relationship. Kay is pushed toward both revelation and decision: "If you can clean up the mess outside then maybe the mess inside will straighten out too", she opines. It's the "maybe" that muddles her tidy formula.

Iron Shoes is alternately sobering and breezy as Giles moves from the more unpleasant inevitabilities of Kay's world to the often absurd stratagems of family reconciliation. An ensemble cast enlivens things as well: Kay's sexy and audacious friend Zabeth counsels her and--just maybe--is coming on to her father, and her husband Neal is obsessed with a healthy diet but forgetful even of how many years he and Kay have been married. If at times the heroine's travails seem something of a caricature of fortysomething despair, Giles picks up the slack with a few well-placed narrative sleights of hand. Throughout, Kay's bafflement at other people's apparently well-manicured lives rings at perfect pitch. --Ben Guterson

Review:

Kate Flatley "The Wall Street Journal" Molly Giles is a cut above....With tart humor and sharp wit, she makes her characters boldly three dimensional.

Barbara Sutton

"The New York Times Book Review"

Giles...is a gifted writer -- witty, with keen, comic timing and a graceful sense of economy.

Kate Flatley

"The Wall Street Journal"

Molly Giles is a cut above....With tart humor and sharp wit, she makes her characters boldly three dimensional.

Jean Thompson

author of "Who Do You Love"

"Iron Shoes" is fierce, funny, always exhilarating. This is comedy with an edge to it, and grief that sees with clear eyes.

Karen Karbo

"San Jose Mercury News"

Giles is a darkly funny writer -- one is reminded of Carson McCullers -- and her dialogue is sharp enough to give you whiplash...[a] tough, brilliant little novel.

Barbara Sutton"The New York Times Book Review"Giles...is a gifted writer -- witty, with keen, comic timing and a graceful sense of economy.

Kate Flatley"The Wall Street Journal"Molly Giles is a cut above....With tart humor and sharp wit, she makes her characters boldly three dimensional.

Jean Thompsonauthor of "Who Do You Love""Iron Shoes" is fierce, funny, always exhilarating. This is comedy with an edge to it, and grief that sees with clear eyes.

Karen Karbo"San Jose Mercury News"Giles is a darkly funny writer -- one is reminded of Carson McCullers -- and her dialogue is sharp enough to give you whiplash...[a] tough, brilliant little novel.

Joanne Meschery author of "Home and Away " This crackling heartbreaker of a novel is a triumph of humor and scalpel-sharp perception.

Susanne Pari author of "The Fortune Catcher" I found "Iron Shoes" so engrossing, so charismatic in its language and character development that the story followed me around like perfume for days. Molly Giles's fierce humor makes the reading -- the laughter and the tears, experienced from one paragraph to the next -- completely worthwhile.

Cyra McFadden author of "Rain or Shine" Molly Giles is like a dancer who can't put down a foot wrong, although in her case, it's a word. She's a writer whose voice on the page is like no one else's.

Lynn Freed author of "The Mirror" and "Home Ground" With Molly Giles's trademark combination of wit and wisdom, "Iron Shoes" speaks to the heart. It is true, as everything that Giles writes is true. Read this novel.

Bill Barich author of "Big Dreams: Into the Heart of California" Molly Giles's crisp, witty writing is alive to every nuance of family life, and every one of its perils.

Lucy Ferriss author of "The Misconceiver" and "Against Gravity""Iron Shoes" confirms Molly Giles's place as the funniest writer of tragedy this country possesses. She knows us at our best and our worst, and loves us anyway.

Frances Mayes author of "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "Bella Tuscany" Roll over, Evelyn Waugh, here's Molly Giles. She's the authentic satiric voice -- a rare bird in American letters -- wicked, affectionate, and amused. "Iron Shoes" can dance.

April Sinclair author of "I Left My Back Door Open" Molly Giles meticulously captures a quirky upscale world in this beautifully written debut novel.

Carolyn See author of "The Handyman" Molly Giles perfectly captures a bittersweet space and time in our American history, and makes it irrevocably and definitively her own.

Alyce Miller author of "Stopping for Green Lights""Iron Shoes" is sheer magic -- it will make you laugh yourself to tears, that is, when it's not tearing your heart out.

Barbara Sutton "The New York Times Book Review" Giles...is a gifted writer -- witty, with keen, comic timing and a graceful sense of economy.

Karen Karbo "San Jose Mercury News" Giles is a darkly funny writer -- one is reminded of Carson McCullers -- and her dialogue is sharp enough to give you whiplash...[a] tough, brilliant little novel.

Jean Thompson author of "Who Do You Love" "Iron Shoes" is fierce, funny, always exhilarating. This is comedy with an edge to it, and grief that sees with clear eyes.

Barbara Sutton The New York Times Book Review Giles...is a gifted writer -- witty, with keen, comic timing and a graceful sense of economy.

Karen Karbo San Jose Mercury News Giles is a darkly funny writer -- one is reminded of Carson McCullers -- and her dialogue is sharp enough to give you whiplash...[a] tough, brilliant little novel.

Kate Flatley The Wall Street Journal Molly Giles is a cut above....With tart humor and sharp wit, she makes her characters boldly three dimensional.

Jean Thompson author of Who Do You Love Iron Shoes is fierce, funny, always exhilarating. This is comedy with an edge to it, and grief that sees with clear eyes.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0786230789
• ISBN 13: 9780786230785
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 377