Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 16, 1994 TAG: 9404160033
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by JOAN SCHROEDER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
It's a short-take, 155-page story of growing up 30 years ago in Virginia. Father certainly doesn't know best in this family; it's dysfunctional with a capital D, a household in which even the septic system doesn't work reliably.
Narrated by a nameless preadolescent girl, "Hula" is a book reeking of sadness, without a hint of sentimentality touching the prose. The sentences are relentlessly simple and matter-of-fact, horrifying in the accumulated details of abuse. From the shelter of the forsythia bushes, or the drain pipe, the young narrator and her sister watch their mother sleep away her life, their father get drunk with his tubercular war buddy, their cat die of rabies.
What's interesting about the novel is that the horror is supplied solely by the reader - Lisa Shea as writer remains scrupulously non-judgmental. She's gone about as far as anyone can in presenting only the facts, in rendering just what is seen and heard and done.
That decision is also what makes the book less than memorable. In choosing a narrator so young, one who seems unable to react to the horror around her, Shea has failed to give her story resonance. What, after all, can a single, unexceptional 10-year-old tell us about life? We don't even know her name. She is a reporter, not even a commentator, much less a rebel; the end of the book will surprise only in its sameness.
Lisa Shea has a keen eye for detail and a good ear for language. We can look forward to her second novel, and hope that her skill is put to use in a richer story.
Joan Schroeder is a Roanoke writer.
by CNB