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Thursday, January 03, 2013

Thursday, January 03, 2013 12:39 am by M. in , ,    No comments
Catherine is the new book (inspired by Wuthering Heights) of April Lindner:
Catherine
April Lindner
Publisher: Poppy / Little, Brown Book Group (January 1, 2013)
ISBN: 978-0316196925

A forbidden romance. A modern mystery. Wuthering Heights as you've never seen it before.
Catherine is tired of struggling musicians befriending her just so they can get a gig at her Dad's famous Manhattan club, The Underground. Then she meets mysterious Hence, an unbelievably passionate and talented musician on the brink of success. As their relationship grows, both are swept away in a fiery romance. But when their love is tested by a cruel whim of fate, will pride keep them apart?
Chelsea has always believed that her mom died of a sudden illness, until she finds a letter her dad has kept from her for years -- a letter from her mom, Catherine, who didn't die: She disappeared. Driven by unanswered questions, Chelsea sets out to look for her -- starting with the return address on the letter: The Underground.
Told in two voices, twenty years apart, Catherine interweaves a timeless forbidden romance with a compelling modern mystery.
Some reviews of the novel:

Booklist:
Pulling threads from the classic Wuthering Heights, Lindner (who previously took on Jane Eyre) crafts a story of mad love and moves the stage from the Yorkshire moors to New York’s punk scene. (...)The story is told in alternating chapters by Chelsea and, through her journal, Catherine. Although the voices don’t sound terribly different, the dramatic events touched by love, loss, and longing have all the juicy elements readers will appreciate. While it’s best not to look too closely at some of the details (Chelsea’s father probably could have found her if he looked hard enough), this does have some of the sweep of the original and certainly—especially in Hence—captures the agony of love gone wrong. (Ilene Cooper)

Kirkus Reviews:
The narrative, a loose-limbed take on Wuthering Heights, is told in the alternating, first-person voices of daughter and mother. However, the emotional heart of the story belongs to Catherine, who as a senior in high school, was a young woman torn between an all-encompassing love for musician Hence and a desire to pursue her own ambitions. (...) The strands of mother’s and daughter’s stories come together during the suspenseful climax, when Chelsea discovers what actually happened to Catherine and gains a measure of peace and maturity.
Publishers Weekly:
Lindner, whose Jane was a modernized retelling of Jane Eyre, capably streamlines the complex, gothic plot twists of the original as she depicts the passionate but ill-fated love between Catherine and Heathcliff stand-in Hence, a rock ragamuffin taken in by Catherine’s club owner father. Unfortunately, Chelsea is fairly generic, and her romance with another young rocker (Hence’s protégé and heir) comes across as plot-driven, not organic. The climax at the gun-stocked home of Catherine’s angry brother, though clearly meant as a cleansing explosion of love and violence worthy of Emily Brontë, is melodramatic and abrupt.

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