New York Public Library Selection as one of l993's Best Books for the Teen Age Friends of American Writers Award, Chicago Signed, hardback copies of Replacing Dad are available for $10.00 plus $3,00 shipping, send request to:
Shelley Mickle
Box 1408
Alachua, Florida 32616-1408
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Editorial Reviews Publishers Weekly
"A refreshingly sweet story of a newly divorced woman struggling to keep her family together,'' said PW of this second novel from the author of The Queen of October. (Mar.) New York Times Book Review, Reviewed by Ferber, Elizabeth
"[The book's] quirky and likable characters ...amuse and engage the reader." From Kirkus Reviews , February 15, 1993
From second-novelist Mickle (The Queen of October, 1989): an engaging, sweet-natured account of a Florida family's survival in the wake of a father's desertion. The Marsh family lives in Palm Key, Florida, a small town where father George is a grade-school principal who leaves wife Linda and their three children--Drew, Mandy, George, Jr.--for Mandy's fifth-grade teacher. The consequences of the divorce are told in alternate chapters by deserted Linda and 15-year-old Drew. The emotional accuracy of many scenes rings true, and the fairy- tale nature of the upbeat narrative is forestalled long enough to be credible. Linda goes to work as a clerk in the payroll office at the town dump, and Drew fortunately has an accident with a Mercedes owned by the new doctor in town, Mark Haley. Haley, of course, decides to hire Drew's mother in his office, and the eventual romance that develops is perhaps too predictable. Meanwhile, there's the usual panoply of predicaments: the roof gives way, and Rex the Roofer makes a pass at Linda and sneaks into her bedroom; after obscene phone calls, Linda gets on unlisted number; the dog dies, and a new one must be found and named, etc. At "Fort Marsh,'' life is never easy, but neither is it usually more taxing than the trials and tribulations of a TV sitcom life. Finally, Drew uses a fishing rodeo as the medium of rapprochement between his mother and the doctor when things seem a little rocky. Mickle doesn't entirely avoid sentimentality here--but she does zero in on the complexities of day-to-day survival and seasonal change to chronicle the way a family resuscitates itself. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. Mary Scott Dye, The State, Columbia, S.C.
"Every so often, an extraordinary novel about what is an ordinary topic comes along, quietly catching readers by surprise. Shelley Fraser Mickle's second novel, "Replacing Dad," is such a gem. Mary Carroll, Booklist
"Mickle--whose first novel, The Queen of October was a New York Times Notable Book--uses a perceptive eye and a compassionate heart in creating a family whose hesitations and advances, failures, hopes and triumphs ring with the vibrant authenticity of stories most readers will have heard from their neighbors and coworkers, cousins and college roommates. Karin Glendenning, Chattanooga News-Free Press
The author's prose is beautifully wrought and lifts this otherwise simple story to memorable heights. Replacing Dad is a fulfilling reading experience, full of humor as well as pathos and above all exuding hope. Amazon.com
A damn fine follow-up to her first book. Any reading list that includes Anne Tyler and Alice Hoffman must, if there is any justice in the world, include Shelley Fraser Mickle. Amazon. com
I am a tremendous fan of this virtually unknown writer. She is not a household name, but should be. There are damn few writers who can match this lady. |
