Tending to Grace

July 5, 2004
Fusco's first novel draws an incisive portrait of a bright and complex teenager who overcomes emotional and material impoverishment. Cornelia's aimless mother, bound for "Vegas" with her boyfriend, yanks her daughter out of ninth grade and drops her off at the broken-down, rural home of Agatha, a great-aunt whom Cornelia has never met. Arranged in brief vignettes, Cornelia's articulate, first-person narrative poignantly reveals the depth of her anger, fear and isolation: "Turning to stone is hard work," she thinks when told of her mother's plans. "First you have to let the anger climb up from deep within you and as it turns over and over and rises up through your chest, you have to clamp your teeth over it and push it back down." Embarrassed by her pronounced stutter, she remains mostly silent, a choice which relegates her to remedial classes instead of the honors English she craves. Much of the plot feels familiar: Agatha, also wounded and an outcast, and Cornelia slowly help each other address their private pain and find new strength. But although the prose is occasionally laden with heavy-handed imagery, it is more typically sinuous and lithe, powerfully conveying a range of heartrendingly real emotions. Ages 12-up.