Finished Fr 8/5/16
This is a book that I had bought from the library in 2002. I thought it was excellent then, and I still do. On Saturday, 8/6 I dropped the book over at the Brandenburgs for Janny to read it.
Teddy shots his sister Trina with a handgun. He's next door at his friend's, Eric, house and they are looking at a gun that Eric's father, a commercial pilot, had bought for his mother for protection when he was away. Eric is handing the gun to Teddy, the phone rings, and the gun goes off, shooting Trina through the heart as she is playing in an inflatable wading pool right in front of her mother, Giselle. Teddy is nine years old, and Trina is not quite two.
The novel is set in California, but Giselle married and grew up in Nebraska. Ed is Teddy's father and she divorced him and went to California to get a degree. She met Dan, her teacher, and fell in love and married him. Trina is his child.
After the shooting, Giselle sees her life in a much different light, and realizes the weaknesses in her relationship with Dan, and sees the strength and good father characteristics of Ed.
"You're lucky you're not my son". This is what Dan says to Teddy right after the accident. I'm not sure what he meant by this (and neither is Giselle), but Dan never recovers from the death of Trina. She was the love of his life, not Giselle, and he understands that he can never forgive (or forget) Teddy's accident. The hurt is just too deep.
I loved the book and plan to read Swick's earlier novel, PAPER WINGS.
page at amazon books-
https://www.amazon.com/Evening-News-Marly-Swick/dp/0316825646
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