Keeping the House. [Baker, Ellen - Author;]. Price: 24.95; Publisher: Random; ISBN: 781400066353 (hardcover).
As
a new bride in a new town, Dolly Magnuson is consumed with trying to be the
perfect wife, as determined by articles in the reigning womens’ magazines,
and with trying to obtain the perfect house, the abandoned Mickelson
mansion, a crumbling Victorian that has captured her fancy to the point of
obsession. As Dolly plies her fellow quilters during Monday afternoon sewing
bees about the fate of various Mickelson family members, she hatches a plan
to restore the house to its original glory in hopes that her husband will
buy it for them, a ploy to save her sanity as much as her marriage. But when
one of the Mickelson scions returns and catches Dolly dusting the family
heirlooms, Dolly discovers more about the family, and herself, than she ever
dreamed possible. Brimming with luscious details that authenticate the
story’s various time periods, from early to mid-twentieth century, Baker’s
accomplished, ambitious debut novel is a majestic, vibrant multigenerational
saga in the finest tradition of the genre.-- Review by Carol Haggas