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Yard Sale
A riveting story that carries the reader through three generations and three sales. You can sell off your possessions, but the Franklin and Holloway families come to realize that it is the people you love and who love you that are important. Meet Henry Franklin, a deceitful, self-centered man, who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. It is his greed that almost destroys his family and ultimately leads to the first yard sale. As the story unfolds, you will come to love the wit and humor of Lou Jean, the caring nature of Anna, whose dedication to her husband and family create a need for a yard sale. Colleen is the third generation forced to make the ultimate decision to sell off all of her possessions. Along the way, you will encounter an array of interesting characters that help to enrich the story. Each chapter will bring you closer into their lives and you will remember them long after you read the last page.
360 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 11, 2016
Decades ago my father had a multi-purpose flashlight on the shelf beside his workbench. When I asked about it, he told me he got it free (for opening an account with a particular bank), and it was worth every penny. I was beginning to suspect that the free e-books I had received from various authors and publishers were of this sort--and so this one was a pleasant surprise.
First, the editing was considerably better. There were occasional errors, the most common of which was when someone's speech was interrupted by narration and the open quote mark was not placed to indicate that speech had resumed, but in the main it was good. There were quite a few places where the story jumped time, anywhere from a day to a number of years, from one paragraph to the next, and had it been a print book I would have expected an extra line break to alert the reader to this--but it may be that it exists in the print edition and simply was formatted out of the electronic one.
There is a sense in which the story is really about a house and the family that lived there, as we follow the family but keep returning to the house. Early on I struggled a bit with the book, because the story is fascinating but the viewpoint character is a complete scoundrel with no redeeming qualities--he cheats and steals and blackmails and bribes. He is the only son of a wealthy family whose father has insisted he attend medical school, just before the depression. The family comes through the first wave of the depression reasonably solvent, but over the long term the assets dwindle--in part because the son is getting his mother to send him secret gifts behind his father's back which he is using to hire a South American student to cheat for him. He then marries a very sweet girl simply because she works for the professors and he hopes to get test questions from her for the finals (only to discover that the school rules don't allow wives of students to work for professors), ruins her life but fathers two children; the first becomes very sick due to his negligence and dies young. His parents also die, in a car accident, and at a very inopportune moment--they had willed the summer house to the manservant who had been with them since before the son was born, and established a trust as a gift for the medical college, and left their son "everything else", which at this point was virtually nothing and they were going to change their will but died before doing so. He continues to cheat, engages in criminal activity to bring in extra income, and spends money hand over fist trying to feel like he is as wealthy as his parents were. Then, half way through the book, he dies young, leaving his widow with their daughter, no significant assets, and a lot of debt. That's when they have the first yard sale, first bringing in dealers to buy the best of the antiques and such, then selling everything else to cover the debts and relocate to a more affordable location.
Along the way his daughter meets the daughter of a woman who ekes out a living cleaning houses in the wealthy neighborhood in which he had located them, and as she is the only other teenager in the area they become friends. The other girl can't afford even the clothes for high school, but the daughter gets her mother to agree to let her give away a lot of the clothes she never wears (without telling Dad). Both girls go to college, but the daughter has to return home a year before graduation upon her father's unexpected death. The other girl goes on to paralegal training and ultimately becomes a wealthy lawyer--but the daughter marries a farmer, is very happy, and has two girls of her own. The older is a lot of trouble, but ultimately settles down to a reasonably happy domestic life as a farm wife with several children. The younger goes through college and moves away to work in the publishing world. She is becoming successful, but she has her own problems including a bad marriage which fortunately does not last a year and does not result in children. She is headed for a happy ending by the end of the book.
Her first book is a fictionalization of her grandmother's life, which is an interesting inside joke perhaps: it appears that the book the granddaughter wrote is this book that we are reading, more or less. I was concerned that most of the men who were important in the story proved to be scoundrels, but that's not true because the daughter and the elder granddaughter were both very happily married and the younger granddaughter does find a nice guy toward the end. There were no female characters who were unlikable, though, and a lot of time went to the nasty guys, so the "guys are worthless" aspect stands out to some degree.
I had trouble with the timeline, and the strong feeling that the author lost track of it somewhere. The first viewpoint character started medical school sometime prior to the stock market crash of 1929, and still had at least a year to go after that. He dies when his second child is about twenty or twenty-one, which means almost certainly not earlier than 1943, and the story continues from there; but the attitude expressed by the girl's friend toward sexuality is more consistent with the 1960s or 1970s, and somehow World War II never impacts anyone in the story. By the time the second granddaughter is in college the friend is high-powered corporate lawyer doing most of her work in Europe. (They say she is forty, which doesn't help my timeline all that much.) I felt like the depiction of the end of the twenties and early thirties was quite credible, but as I lost track of what year it could possibly be and wondered when the war was coming I felt less and less as if the world being depicted was consistent with history.
However, the story was good, internally consistent with excellent characters doing interesting yet credible things. I would certainly read another by the author if it chanced into my hands.
First, the editing was considerably better. There were occasional errors, the most common of which was when someone's speech was interrupted by narration and the open quote mark was not placed to indicate that speech had resumed, but in the main it was good. There were quite a few places where the story jumped time, anywhere from a day to a number of years, from one paragraph to the next, and had it been a print book I would have expected an extra line break to alert the reader to this--but it may be that it exists in the print edition and simply was formatted out of the electronic one.
There is a sense in which the story is really about a house and the family that lived there, as we follow the family but keep returning to the house. Early on I struggled a bit with the book, because the story is fascinating but the viewpoint character is a complete scoundrel with no redeeming qualities--he cheats and steals and blackmails and bribes. He is the only son of a wealthy family whose father has insisted he attend medical school, just before the depression. The family comes through the first wave of the depression reasonably solvent, but over the long term the assets dwindle--in part because the son is getting his mother to send him secret gifts behind his father's back which he is using to hire a South American student to cheat for him. He then marries a very sweet girl simply because she works for the professors and he hopes to get test questions from her for the finals (only to discover that the school rules don't allow wives of students to work for professors), ruins her life but fathers two children; the first becomes very sick due to his negligence and dies young. His parents also die, in a car accident, and at a very inopportune moment--they had willed the summer house to the manservant who had been with them since before the son was born, and established a trust as a gift for the medical college, and left their son "everything else", which at this point was virtually nothing and they were going to change their will but died before doing so. He continues to cheat, engages in criminal activity to bring in extra income, and spends money hand over fist trying to feel like he is as wealthy as his parents were. Then, half way through the book, he dies young, leaving his widow with their daughter, no significant assets, and a lot of debt. That's when they have the first yard sale, first bringing in dealers to buy the best of the antiques and such, then selling everything else to cover the debts and relocate to a more affordable location.
Along the way his daughter meets the daughter of a woman who ekes out a living cleaning houses in the wealthy neighborhood in which he had located them, and as she is the only other teenager in the area they become friends. The other girl can't afford even the clothes for high school, but the daughter gets her mother to agree to let her give away a lot of the clothes she never wears (without telling Dad). Both girls go to college, but the daughter has to return home a year before graduation upon her father's unexpected death. The other girl goes on to paralegal training and ultimately becomes a wealthy lawyer--but the daughter marries a farmer, is very happy, and has two girls of her own. The older is a lot of trouble, but ultimately settles down to a reasonably happy domestic life as a farm wife with several children. The younger goes through college and moves away to work in the publishing world. She is becoming successful, but she has her own problems including a bad marriage which fortunately does not last a year and does not result in children. She is headed for a happy ending by the end of the book.
Her first book is a fictionalization of her grandmother's life, which is an interesting inside joke perhaps: it appears that the book the granddaughter wrote is this book that we are reading, more or less. I was concerned that most of the men who were important in the story proved to be scoundrels, but that's not true because the daughter and the elder granddaughter were both very happily married and the younger granddaughter does find a nice guy toward the end. There were no female characters who were unlikable, though, and a lot of time went to the nasty guys, so the "guys are worthless" aspect stands out to some degree.
I had trouble with the timeline, and the strong feeling that the author lost track of it somewhere. The first viewpoint character started medical school sometime prior to the stock market crash of 1929, and still had at least a year to go after that. He dies when his second child is about twenty or twenty-one, which means almost certainly not earlier than 1943, and the story continues from there; but the attitude expressed by the girl's friend toward sexuality is more consistent with the 1960s or 1970s, and somehow World War II never impacts anyone in the story. By the time the second granddaughter is in college the friend is high-powered corporate lawyer doing most of her work in Europe. (They say she is forty, which doesn't help my timeline all that much.) I felt like the depiction of the end of the twenties and early thirties was quite credible, but as I lost track of what year it could possibly be and wondered when the war was coming I felt less and less as if the world being depicted was consistent with history.
However, the story was good, internally consistent with excellent characters doing interesting yet credible things. I would certainly read another by the author if it chanced into my hands.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 23, 2015
I found myself alternately really liking the book and ready to chuck it. Unfortunately, I always finish a book I start (a sometimes appalling quirk I have). Some of her characters were marvelous and really fascinating in their development and others fell flat, either because of poor follow through or a total disconnect with reality, i.e. Henry. The author also is in serious need of an editor to calm her rapidly rambling style and put some paragraphs and chapter headings in. The story is really basically a good one, but it is told in fits and starts that annoy the hell out of an English major. But if you can get past all that, there is an interesting tale there and enough to draw the reader into buying the sequel just to find out what happened to some favorite characters. A real mixture here that I would love to have had a chance at editing.
February 3, 2014
A wonderful book about the catharsis of a yard sale
The book is a wonderful story of the ups and downs of life, the bitter and sweet. The principal character in the beginning of the story, Henry, demonstrates a child/man no parent ever wants to believe to be their prodigy. His greed and disregard for all but himself leads the reader to wish for his demise.
The story weaves a picture of how,despite adversity, the Franklin family goes on and even thrives. It is a well written story, skillfully told, that does capture the attention of the reader from first chapter to last.
Yard Sale is a good read!
The book is a wonderful story of the ups and downs of life, the bitter and sweet. The principal character in the beginning of the story, Henry, demonstrates a child/man no parent ever wants to believe to be their prodigy. His greed and disregard for all but himself leads the reader to wish for his demise.
The story weaves a picture of how,despite adversity, the Franklin family goes on and even thrives. It is a well written story, skillfully told, that does capture the attention of the reader from first chapter to last.
Yard Sale is a good read!
December 27, 2011
Sort of a strange book but good. Slightely predictable but good for a "not too serious" book.
Read
January 29, 2015Bit different from the types of novels I read. I'm not done yet so we shall see if Karma plays out like I hope it will by book's end
December 25, 2012
I really like this book at the beginning...but about 2/3rd of the way thru the main character was gone and it took on a new story line. Wasn't horrible, just odd...
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews