New York, New York, U.S.A.: Anchor Books, 2003. Book. Very Good. Soft cover. Signed by Author!. Slight cover wear. Nice, tight, unmarked copy. Signed by author on half-title pg. From Publishers Weekly: "The world of Christian Science healing forms the backdrop for this story about grief and the conflict between religious faith and physical experience. In December 1952, Charlotte McGuffey re-embraces her Christian Scientist beliefs and announces her intention to take her two young sons, the energetic Baird and the impulsive, autistic Hoskins, and leave her photographer husband, Melvin. Melvin agrees to a trial separation, thinking he will prove the folly of her plan, and departs for their country home in Beede, Vt. Just a few days later he is killed by a young, nervous driver. The following summer Charlotte packs up their belongings and brings the boys to Beede to search for information about her husband's last days alive. The town's denizens-including drifter Paul Bellini, "The Great Bellini," who lives in a nearby communal house and insists on watching over the country place for her, and the fiercely attractive artist Francis-begin to coax Charlotte from her mourning and loneliness. But when her beloved sister refuses medical treatment for the diabetes that killed their Scientist mother, and Hoskins reaches his fourth birthday without speaking an intelligible word (though he perfectly mimics the instructions in a driving manual, hence the title), Charlotte's own faith and healing are sorely tested. Mesmerizing prose and darkly complex characters draw the reader deep into Charlotte's world, raising fascinating questions about the power of mind over body and the emotions that bind the most unlikely people together. Readers who crave a slice of insight with their fiction will find this a thoughtful, provocative book.".

Synopsis

Raised as a Christian Scientist in upstate New York, Charlotte McGuffey has always striven to be perfect and has trusted the power of her thoughts to protect her from life's troubles. But when her newly estranged husband dies on a trip out of town, leaving her to raise their two young sons on her own, Charlotte realizes that her problems are too complex for her to master with the power of her mind alone.Accompanied by her boys, Charlotte goes to the family's summer home in Beede, Vermont, WHERE her husband, Mel, was last seen alive, to look for answers about his final days and to grapple with her feelings of confusion and guilt surrounding his death. As Charlotte explores this new world, she is befriended by her neighbors in Beede--a colorful lot who are concerned, helpful, very human, and decidedly imperfect. Among them are a kind and perceptive postmistress/reporter, a garrulous caretaker, and an unlikely suitor--a joyous and charismatic artist at war with conventional thinking.In this eclectic environment, Charlotte begins to explore her own feelings and question the fundamental beliefs she's accepted her whole life. To triumph, she must untangle her family's doctored past and brave encounters with painful truths she has never wanted to face. In this bighearted, lush, and graceful debut novel, Mary Hays portrays the strength of the human spirit in times of crisis and the ways in which community can foster individual growth. Learning to Drive stakes claim to a world in which all things solid seem to shape-shift, people juggle reality to fit their beliefs, and women are deeply passionate about the choices they make.From the Hardcover edition.

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Details

Bookseller: The Unskoolbookshop (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 018220
Title: Learning to Drive
Author: Hays, Mary
Format/Binding: Paperback
Book Condition: Used - Very Good
ISBN 10: 1400031907
ISBN 13: 9781400031900
Publisher: Anchor Books
Place of Publication: New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 2003
Keywords: FICTION VERMON, Christian Science
Bookseller catalogs: Fiction for Grownups and Older Kids;

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Tight: Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.