Juniper Tree Burning Book

Juniper Tree Burning hates her name. It represents everything she despises about her life: her "hippie" mother, Faith, who lives by healing herbs and horoscopes; her father, Ray, a cursing, abusive guitar-playing storyteller; her sick little brother, Sunny, whom she alternately mothers and resents; and the poverty of her isolated New Mexico town. Juniper flees them all, to private school in New England, to turn herself into someone new: Jennie.

She raises herself to be strong and smart: a medical student who hustles a little pool on the side, an obsessive runner, and a self-proclaimed Ugly Chick With Attitude.

Then, one night the Seattle Police call. Her brother, Sunny, has leaped off a ferry and killed himself. And so begins the biggest journey of her life. As Jennie retraces the steps of her brother, the same path traveled by generations of her family, she confronts the stories they have woven, the tapestry of the lives they have built on the coasts and deserts of the West and comes to terms with her past, her present, and her future.

Library Journal

In this lyrical and promising debut, teenagers Ray and Faith leave Seattle and land in rural New Mexico in 1966 with a baby on the way and $53 in their pockets. Their disastrous attempts at parenting are chronicled here by Juniper Tree Burning, the daughter they couldn't be bothered to name until the signs were right. Poignant vignettes of growing up as the neglected blonde, Anglo child of displaced hippies in a largely Hispanic school and community are spliced with Juniper's own bungled attempts at adult love. The novel is part mystery, as Juniper, who changes her name to Jennie, ultimately embarks on a cross-country odyssey of both closure and discovery after receiving a heart-wrenching call from the Seattle police concerning her younger brother, Sonny Boy Blue. A riveting juxtaposition of angst and love by Long, a graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. Susan A. Zappia, Paradise Valley Community Coll., Phoenix, AZ Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.