Rich in Love Book

Funny, touching, and wise, Rich in Love is the story of a tumultuous and pivotal summer in the life of l7-year-old narrator Lucille Odom.

Publishers Weekly

The second, intensely engaging novel by the author of Dreams of Sleep again exhibits masterful control of language and narrative drive. In a voice both distinctive and convincing, Lucille Odom, the 17-year-old, precociously perceptive protagonist narrates the story of her family's unravelling and its reconstitution in a different form. It happens in a flash, when Lu's mother leaves home; as her father fails to cope and her older sister returns to Mt. Pleasant, S.C., suddenly married and pregnant, Lu feels she must guide them all out of ``the protected stage of our lives'' and through the perilous emotional terrain they have entered. In luminous prose anchored by precise details, Humphries explores a varied landscape of human relationships, mooring them firmly in the changing Southern milieu she describes. Lu discovers that even in this world gone awry, positive things can happen: she and her father reach a new level of communication and understanding; both parents, separately, achieve a new sense of identity; Lu falls in love for the first time, although she knows nothing good can ensue from it. Even as she is caught in her family's anguish, Lu muses, ``I was rich in love, even though no one could see it.'' This novel is rich too, in insight, humor and wisdom. 35,000 first printing; Literary Guild alternate. (September 21)