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Click to view full description | 1. | Plain, Belva After the Fire
Dell April 3, 2001 Paperback used; good
From Library Journal When young artist Hyacinth falls in love with and marries Gerald, a medical student, she thinks she has found heaven. But like many marriages, this on e founders. Then one night in desperation Hyacinth commits an act for which she will pay dearly, giving Gerald the reason he needs to gain uncontested custody of their two young children. However, despite the anguish over her children and her broken marriage, Hyacinth takes a fashion design course a nd quickly rises to the top of her profession. Although known and admired f or her portrayals of families in all their complexity, Plain's (Legacy of S ilence) characters in this book fail to be convincing. The combination of H yacinth's na?vet? and meteoric assent in the fashion business strains belie vability. The author's strength, however, lies in her ability to sustain su spense throughout the story, leaving listeners wondering about "the secret" until the end. Kate Harper reads with skill and emotion, rendering both ma le and female voices effectively. The tape quality is excellent. Recommende d for popular fiction collections. Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition. From AudioFile Hyacinth meets Prince Charming in college, and they marry shortly after graduation, despite her mother's feelings, portrayed in chilling tones. Only after her husband becomes a doctor and she, the dutiful wife and mother of two, does Hyacinth confirm her suspicions of his affairs. The story is portrayed with realism, and the listener is carried into the carnage of the doctor's clinic,
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| 2. | Plain, Belva Blessings
Dell July 1, 1990 Paperback used; good
Dependable Plain ( Evergreen ) again deftly explores enduring themes: the v arious social strata of Jewish life; the complexities of family relationshi ps; the consequences of following a deeply felt social conscience. At 36, J ennie Rakowsky is a lawyer specializing in defending the rights of impoveri shed women. She is about to marry Jay Wolfe, a widower with three young chi ldren, partner in a prestigious Manhattan law firm and, like Jennie, commit ted to saving the Green Marsh wildlife sanctuary from unscrupulous develope rs. Jennie's well-ordered life is shattered when the illegitimate daughter she gave up for adoption at birth, now a personable but strong-willed girl of 19 called Jill Miller, appears on Jennie's doorstep. To complicate matte rs, Jill's father also reappears and creates profound misconceptions that f orce Jay and Jennie to cancel their wedding. The author stretches an awkwar d subplot concerning mob-connected real estate developers far too thin, but her mixture of romance, suspense, and deeply felt familial conflicts shoul d leave her fans well entertained.
Price: 2.50 USD | See Full
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| 3. | Plain, Belva Crescent City
Dell October 1, 1987 Paperback used; good
Price: 3.00 USD | See Full
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| 4. | Plain, Belva Eden Burning
Dell October 1, 1987 Mass Market Pa used; good
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| 5. | Plain, Belva Evergreen
Dell October 1, 1987 Paperback used; very good
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| 6. | Plain, Belva Her Father's House
Delacorte Press Hardcover; w/j hardcover w/dustjacket; good
Surely theirs is no marriage made in heaven, but they had a child, Tina, an d she is the love of Donald's heart. For her he would give up everything--- -his home, his distinquished career, and his freedom. When his flawed marri age begins to fail, a choice must be made. Shall he consider a step that wo uld force him into flight and a life of hiding?
Price: 4.00 USD | See Full
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| 7. | Plain, Belva Promises
Dell May 1, 1997 Paperback used; good
Family values and feminism make an uneasy marriage in this undisguised mora lity play about adultery. Fifteen years ago, Margaret Crane gave up the dre am of medical school to devote herself to her husband, Adam, an engineer. B eautiful, loyal, savvy in bed, cheerful in pregnancy and tirelessly sensiti ve in motherhood, Margaret now unknowingly loses her husband to the crude a nd grasping Randi Bunting, who enjoyed an intense affair with Adam back in college and has appeared in their small Midwestern town. Meanwhile, Margare t's beloved cousin Nina falls for another married man. Margaret's moralizin g provokes a schism between the two women.
Price: 3.50 USD | See Full
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| 8. | Plain, Belva Random Winds
Bantam Doubleday Dell Paperback used; good
RANDOM WINDS is an epochal saga about a family of physicians -- first Enoch , the dedicated country doctor; then Martin, his son, a brilliant neurosurg eon; and Claire, his flamboyant, unconventional daughter. The story moves from a turn-of-the-century village in upstate New York to privileged estates outside London, from the bedsides of the rural poor to the frenetic emergency room of a New York hospital, from war-torn London to hideaways on the French Riviera. It tells of the trials and triumphs of a dynamic family struggling to hold its center, and of love beyond anyone's power to deny.
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| 9. | Plain, Belva Secrecy
Dell April 6, 1998 Paperback used: good
Plain returns, this time with the story of a young rape victim struggling t o overcome obstacles to intimacy and true love. There's also a clammy subpl ot having to do with a missing person and the infiltration by the mob of an industrial site belonging to an old New England family. Charlotte Dawes is raped at 14 by her cousin-by-marriage, the randy Ted, son of her uncle Cli ff's new wife, Claudia, whose first husband was shot in--where else?--Chica go. When Charlotte becomes pregnant, then, her father and her romantic adve nturess mother are wild with rage. Both are beside their daughter's bedside as she recovers from an operation for a ruptured tubal pregnancy. In the m eantime, Ted continues to assault women and is finally arrested and indicte d for rape and kidnapping. Home on bail, he escapes in the night. (Reports from abroad of Ted-sightings occur now and then.) Skip to Manhattan eight y ears later, where adult Charlotte works for an architectural firm. She love s her work but despairs of forming a firm relationship with a man, sex-shy as she is. She designs for her own pleasure a ``public square'' fit for the Dawes's now shuttered mill. Unfortunately, her family has inadvertently le ased the mill to a polluting waste-disposal firm, to the anger of the town and the despair of the Daweses. Then Charlotte meets the dashing Roger Heyw ood, whose family deals in commercial real estate. Roger is not only able t o come up with the ready cash to finance Charlotte's project, but (of cours e) coaxes her out of her trauma-related fear of sex. Finally, Claudia, trad ing on her late husband's mob connections, talks a boss out of retaining th
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| 10. | Plain, Belva Tapestry
Dell March 4, 1989 Paperback used; good
The novel covers the early '20s until the end of World War II. Paterfamilia s is Paul Werner, a high-minded banker, a dedicated philanthropist and a re luctant adulterer. His genteel wife Marion, unable to bear children, coolly retreats to her private circle of charitable events and card parties. Alth ough Paul still broods over his first love, Anna, he turns to his exuberant cousin Leah, a flourishing business woman, for a brief, happy affair. It i s at a large family gathering that long pent-up emotions explode, and past tragedies, infidelities and hostilities emerge with destructive force. Alth ough there is a historical inevitability to the events viewed here (the 192 0 "Red scare"; Prohibition; the stock market crash; the rise of Hitler) the characters are never predictable. They act with passion and conviction, an d their many vicissitudes will not disappoint Plain's fans. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club selections. Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition. From Library Journal Paul Werner, the key figure of a powerful New York banking family, is the protagonist in this saga of one man's concerns with the impending doom of World War II and the plight of his German-Jewish relatives and friends. Paul is caught in a passionless, childless marriage, and he struggles for years with the memory and reality of his first love and subsequent affairs of the heart. All of the characters are fleshed out, and the storyline is rich in historical perspective, attention to detail, and resolution of plot. Another sweeping family saga by a master.
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| 11. | Plain, Belva The Carousel
Dell April 2, 1996 Paperback used; good
Plain's latest mystery concerns business machinations, child molestation an d murder within a powerful family.
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