MADreads

Sanctuary

February 20th, 2007 Mary K. - Central

Parents sometimes go to extremes to protect their children, and don’t consider the consequences of those actions.  In Once Upon a Day by Lisa Tucker, Charles O’Brien has created a place he calls the Sanctuary and has raised his two children away from any outside influences; they even wear clothes from the fifties, the last acceptable decade in his eyes.  They have a loving grandmother, but have been told that their mother is dead.  This environment seems to suit them until they are adults and their grandmother dies. Then the outside world beckons. 

Memories of his early childhood haunt Jimmie, Charles’ son, and he decides to go to Saint Louis to learn about his past.  Soon, his sister, Dorthea, must try to find Jimmie.  Both Dorthea and Jimmie have problems adapting to the outside world, Jimmie more so.  Dorthea is fortunate to be picked up at the bus station by  a cab driver, Stephen Spaulding, who is a doctor with a tragedy in his recent past.  Stephen spends the day with Dorthea while she is searching for Jimmie and ends up taking her in after they find Jimmie in a mental hospital. 

The story switches expertly between the past and the present.  A lot of it takes place in Hollywood, so there is a lot of film making detail in the book.  As in a lot of good fiction, we are willing to suspend credibility as we are pulled into a good story.

Entry Filed under: Literary Fiction