APRIL 6, 2017 // 19
GLIMPSE // Q&A
BOOKMONGER
What happens after child prodigies grow up?
Although she was born
in Eugene, New York Times
bestselling author Marie
Bostwick has spent much of
her life living elsewhere — in
places like Colorado, Mexico
and Connecticut, to name a
few — and the settings for her
stories have refl ected diverse
geographies, too.
But Bostwick recently
settled back in Oregon, and
her latest book, “The Promise
Girls” is situated just up I-5 in
Seattle. It’s great to have her
spotlight the Pacifi c North-
west.
In this story, sisters Joanie,
Meg and Avery Promise all
were conceived as test tube ba-
bies. Their single mom, Min-
erva, reportedly had selected
sperm donors with exceptional
talents and high IQs. She then
went on to raise her daughters
combining enrichment with
rigorously scientifi c methods
in an attempt realize their
utmost potential.
Sure enough, by the time
she is 17, Joanie is a virtuoso
pianist and Meg and Avery
show precocious talent in
painting and storytelling,
respectively.
To raise money to pay for
her daughters’ various private
lessons — and to keep food
on the table — Minerva writes
a book about her endeavor to
raise geniuses. When it comes
out, mother and daughters
embark on an intensive three-
week publicity tour. It is an
exhausting experience, but
at the end of three weeks the
ballyhoo hasn’t yet died down,
so Minerva agrees to the publi-
cist’s plan to continue booking
events three months out.
Joanie sees what her
mother refuses to acknowledge
— that this frenetic pace is ex-
tremely detrimental, especially
“The Promise Girls”
Marie Bostwick
Kensington
346 pp - $15
to her younger sisters. So she
sabotages the continuation of
the tour on a nationally tele-
vised talk show by deliberately
fl ubbing the piano piece she
has performed impeccably at
every previous event.
Understanding that this was
intentional, Minerva lashes out
— and the unsavory moment
is caught on camera.
There is immediate fallout.
The public recoils, the pub-
lisher pulls the book out of
bookstores and Minerva loses
custody of her daughters.
“The Promise Girls” picks
up 20 years later. The sisters
— still estranged from their
mom — have come together
to live near one another in
Seattle. They’ve been leading
modest lives far from the
limelight until a documentary
fi lmmaker comes sniffi ng
around, wanting to do a fol-
low-up on the sputtering life
trajectories of these women
who once were touted to be
child prodigies.
In “The Promise Girls,”
Bostwick has pieced together
an ambitious and complex
plot that involves secrets and
unanticipated ties.
As with much women’s
fi ction, the romances feel a
mite contrived, and while the
author certainly raises the no-
tion of nature versus nurture
and other issues of childrear-
ing, she might have plumbed
that subject more deeply.
On the plus side, Bost-
wick’s character development
is nuanced and the scenes
are judiciously detailed. Her
depiction of what it’s like to
participate in the 21st century
creative economy captures the
promise and the uncertainty of
that way of life.
There’s an important mes-
sage here about developing
the will to forge one’s own
uniquely suitable path — and
we can be glad that Bost-
wick’s path has brought her
back to the Pacifi c Northwest.
The Bookmonger is Barbara
Lloyd McMichael, who writes
this weekly column focusing
on the books, authors and
publishers of the Pacifi c
Northwest. Contact her at
bkmonger@nwlink.com
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April 15 & 16
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Sunday, April 16 th • 11 AM - 3 PM
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