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taking care of his mother to fear for her safety and jealousy that he isbeing replaced in her affections. Despite the fact that Adele has treatedhim more like a girlfriend than a son, he is fiercely loyal to her.Henry becomes even more confused when Adele and Frankbegin to plan their escape to Canada. Assuming that they will leavehim behind to live with his father’s new family, he acts out in waysthat jeopardize Frank’s freedom. Like Ian McEwan’s Atonement, thestory line of Labor Day pivots on the damage that an unthinking youngperson can cause in other people’s lives, though in this case the effectis not so tragic.Frank, Adele and Henry become anunlikely family over the swelteringLabor Day weekend. It quicklybecomes apparent that there is astrong attraction between Frankand Adele. She again shows a lackof concern for her son’s welfare byinitiating a passionate affair with theescaped prisoner despite televisionnews reports that he say he is aconvicted murderer.Maynard is a skilled writer who is able to take us from a sense ofmenace to feelings of hope for Adele and Frank. She shows us Adele,a neglectful and inappropriate parent, through Henry’s loving eyes.In her 1998 memoir, At Home in the World, Maynard revealed thather own childhood home was less than ideal. Her father was proneto alcohol-fueled rages and her mother was a frustrated author. As ateenager, she pushed herself to fulfill her parents’ expectations. She receivednational attention in 1972, when her article “An Eighteen YearOld Looks Back on Life” put her on the cover of The New York TimesMagazine. The article brought her to the attention of 53-year-old reclusiveauthor J.D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye). Because of Salinger’sfame, Maynard’s mother fully supported her decision to drop out ofYale in her freshman year and move in with Salinger. The relationshipended disastrously after a year. Maynard never returned to college butwas able to establish a career as an author and journalist.I listened to the Labor Day audiobook, which is nicely narrated byWilson Bethel. I later discovered that Bethel is Maynard’s son as wellas an actor who has appeared in the daytime soap opera The Young andThe Restless and in the comedy-drama series Hart of Dixie. I couldn’thelp but wonder how much of Maynard’s and Bethel’s mother-son relationshipinfluenced her depiction of Adele and Henry. ■HERLIFEnewyork.com 31