Once in a Lifetime
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15
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Millions adored Daphne Fields, for she shared their passion, their pain, their joy, and their sorrow. But America's most popular novelist remained a closed book to the world -- guarding her life with a fierce privacy no reporter could crack. Her life hides a myriad of secrets. The husband and daughter she lost in a fire. The son who barely survived it and would be deaf forever. The victories, the defeats, the challenges of facing life as a woman alone and helping her son meet the challenges of his handicap. A strong woman, she would not accept defeat, or help from anyone ... until she found she could no longer face it alone.
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Ugh. I picked this up from a Little Free Library in my neighborhood during a time when I needed a quick distraction. This was my first Danielle Steel novel, and it was distractingly bad, so mission accomplished, I guess. I'm not just being snarky about bestselling authors; if this novel is representative of Steel's work, several dozen of them are worth one by Mary Higgins Clark, which used to be some of my favorite beach reads. The plot was a foregone conclusion, and the characters were one-note and boring. In fairness to Steel, however, this is a particularly difficult climate in which to attempt to swallow her approach to gender (e.g., “She looked up at him again and for a mad moment she wanted to fold herself into his arms, to feel the safety she had once felt, protected by a man.”), so that's a big part of what I found so noxious. Lesson learned!
