![]() ![]() ![]() Packer’s design enables her to move among six quite different personalities at several key moments in their lives. ![]() Getting to that heart is the structural strength of the novel. How do the children react? The answer is at the heart of The Children’s Crusade. I would describe Bill, a physician, as a very ‘hands on’ parent, whereas Penny would prefer to isolate herself from family affairs. Their parenting styles distinctly differ. Together they raise four children, more or less. He falls in love with the landscape, buys foothills property above what will become Silicon Valley, and marries Penny Greenway. The story follows the Blairs, after Bill Blair moves to California in 1954. I often find that familial angst novels tend to be shallow and superficial, or belabor the obvious, but I’m quite enthusiastic about The Children’s Crusade ’s complexity and depth. Instead, she writes with understated deftness. Her subject matter could easily be treated with a heavy hand, but Packer resists the obvious. Shrewd and subtle are two adjectives I would use to describe Ann Packer’s novel, The Children’s Crusade, which traces several decades of dysfunctional California family life. ![]()
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