2005 Year in Review

"The Broker" and "Sweetwater Creek"

The protagonist of this story is Joel Backman, at one time the most powerful man in Washington, D.C., after the President of the United States. He was the head of a very powerful lobby, and was known as a notorious power broker. However, Joel Backman’s life comes to a crashing halt with the death of Jacy Hubbard, one-time Senator and member of Backman’s firm.

Joel Bachman is imprisoned for six years, when suddenly he is pardoned and smuggled out of the country. His name and nationality are changed as he finds himself in Treviso, Italy: his name now, Marco. The weak out-going President grants the pardon after intense pressure from the CIA, because Backman may have obtained secrets during his power broker heyday that compromise the world’s most sophisticated satellite surveillance system.

Unknown, to Joel is the CIA plans to eventually leak his whereabouts to various people and nations. The question is not whether he will survive; it is who will kill him? This is a racing adventure with a hero who is not very hero-like. He has fallen from the heights of ten million dollar fortune, to a convicted felon, to a man without a country, to a man hunted by the faceless. Much of the story is filled in with flash backs which helps to “flesh-out” Joel Backman and his personal history.

Having been to Italy, I truly enjoyed the setting of this novel. But I also enjoyed the story and thought this was one of Grisham’s better books. Everything takes place in intense moments, and the reader must piece together the puzzle along with Joel Backman. It is a good read.

Sweetwater Creek by Anne Rivers Siddons

Anne Rivers Siddons is one of my favorite “leisure reading” authors. Many of you, I am sure, have read Colony, Outer Banks, Up Island, etc. Most of her novels center around a woman who is struggling to find her place. However, Emily, the heroine of Sweetwater Creek is only twelve, and is struggling with her beautiful mother’s abandonment and the death of her beloved brother, Buddy. Her father, Walter, and two remaining brothers barely notice her existence as they obsess with the business of raising Boykin spaniels for hunting.

But, Emily, a wise and wonderful child, is terrific with an endearing bravery, thanks to her own abilities. She has learned love, poetry, and friendship from her dying brother, Buddy. She loves and cares for her spaniel, Elvis, and the plantation puppies. Elvis is not only her best playmate, but also her protector and the confidant of her secrets.

The setting for this book is the South Carolina Lowcountry, a land of marshes and rivers. Emily’s home, the Parmenter plantation, has faded and her world a narrow, meager, masculine one. But to Emily there is magic on the rivers, marshes, streams, and especially, Sweetwater Creek.

Emily’s world is changed the summer Lulu Foxworth comes to visit. Lulu, a daughter of a grand plantation owner, visits Emily’s family to buy a spaniel for hunting. However, Lulu is a troubled debutant and is running from her privileged life in Charleston. Emily’s father, Walter Parmenter, agrees that Lulu may spend the summer helping with the puppies. So, into Emily’s world comes enchantment as Lulu becomes sister, friend, mother as Lulu and Emily’s lives entwine. For Lulu has her own dark secrets and needs Emily’s healing during this hot summer.

This bittersweet novel of yearning and loss is Emily’s book, her story. It is one of learning, growing, and loving: the story of the coming of age of a wonderful girl, and we laugh, hurt, cry, play, and love with her. This book is a treasured read for we all find ourselves in Emily.

by Anne Frame, Guest Columnist
October 3, 2005