Justin Cartwright The Promise of Happiness

The Promise of Happiness

Justin Cartwright

Dunne, Jan 2006, $23.95, 304 pp.

ISBN: 0312348809

The last few years have been rough on the usually successful Judd family of Cornwall, England. It started three years ago when prodigal daughter art historian Juliet was convicted in New York for selling stolen Tiffany windows purloined from a Queens cemetery. She has just been released from prison though she never committed the crime; her boyfriend actually stole the contraband.

Her father is ashamed by the desecration almost as much as the conviction; he also struggles with having lost his position several years ago. Her brother Charlie, a successful business man, picks his sister up at the airport, but remains distant from her as she let him down with the theft; he also contemplates whether he really wants to marry though he is engaged to do so shortly. Her other sibling Sophie the TV producer blames her shortcomings on Juliet's disgrace though the drugs and the married man is all her own doing. Meanwhile mom avoids everyone's issues as she hides behind cooking. The five Judds are back in Cornwell for the first time in years and will either kill each other or turn to each other for comfort.

Readers will run the gamut of emotions as they will see their own family in the distraught Judd brood. The tale is obviously character driven as the quintet elicits laughter and tears for an enthralled audience who will wonder if Justin Cartwright is writing about their family. Fans will appreciate this powerful look at family foolishness that makes the Judds us and us the Judds.

Harriet Klausner