A Big Storm Knocked It over: A Novel

From Publishers Weekly

Reading Colwin's ( Goodbye Without Leaving ) posthumous novel is a bittersweet experience; delight in her irresistible characters and her sensitive probing of life's mysteries is tinged with regret that we will never again see the reflections of her wise and imaginative mind. This is Colwin's most mature novel, her most deeply felt (but characteristically light-fingered) domestic fairy tale for adults. Colwin's characters share a supersensitivity, and a wide-eyed wonder toward even mundane institutions and events. Here, late 30-ish book designer Jane Louise Parker, recently married to plant chemist Teddy, has difficulty thinking of herself as a grown-up. Jewish, dark and "a nomad," she has a free-floating anxiety, born of a lifetime of feeling excluded. She feels inferior to focused Teddy, the scion of a WASP family with roots in a small community in the Berkshires. Not much actually happens in this book: Jane Louise fends off the advances of her libidinous boss; she and her best friend, caterer and pastry chef Edie, become pregnant, and have babies. Motherhood provides Jane Louise with a new source of anxiety, but that is dispelled, temporarily at least, by her realization that her daughter Miranda will have roots and a secure identity. Meanwhile, Colwin examines some traditional institutions with a laser-sharp eye and an offbeat sense of humor. She speculates about marriage and families and friendships, about differences between the sexes, and about such existential questions as "Were other people ever, ever knowable?" All of this is expressed in witty, accurate dialogue and graceful prose, and with inimitable charm. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The mysteries of married life and the vagaries of one's own family and one's spouse's family are topics Colwin skillfully illuminates in a posthumously published novel. For Jane Louise, even Teddy--her wonderful, new, rock-solid husband--and a baby on the way are not enough to stave off plenty of free-floating anxiety. Luckily, she shares her joy and her distress with best friends Edie and Mokie, who have decided to embark on parenthood at the same time. The extended family formed by these two couples must suffice emotionally for each of the four individuals, since not one of the four fits within his or her own family. Colwin's radiant cast of characters populates a warm and witty story full of perfect moments. This very touching, very contemporary tale of love in the 1990s is certain to be popular. Alice Joyce