Like her much-acclaimed previous novels, Susanna Moore's Sleeping Beauties is set in Hawaii, whose shimmering beauty and melancholy traditions are both seductive and dangerously hard to leave. Or so they prove for Clio, who marries a well-known Hollywood actor--providing her with the promise of escape from the entanglements of island life.
From Publishers Weekly
Moore's impressive third novel portrays a Hawaiian "island girl" who flees her ancestral home to marry a Hollywood movie star.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Once again Moore explores the old families of Hawaii through the eyes of their young women. The protagonist, aptly named Clio, is burdened by history; she feels the weight of ancient tradition, the responsibilities of being an "island girl," and the tensions within her splintered family. Often a runaway, she flees into marriage with a film star who attracts her partly because he lives only for the moment. Their violent breakup propels her back to the islands, where she unexpectedly finds love and the strength to reconcile past, present, and future within an independent spiritual and sexual identity. Characters from earlier novels ( My Old Sweetheart, Houghton, 1982; The Whiteness of Bone , LJ 1/89) make cameo appearances in Clio's story, which unfolds in spare, revealing dialog and evocative description. This is prose to be savored.
- Starr E. Smith, Fairfax Cty. P.L., Va.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.