BLESSINGS, by Anna Quindlen, Random House, 226 pages, $24.95.
Although Anna Quindlen left the New York Times in 1995 to write novels full time, she is still better known for her prescient commentary than her novels. Nonetheless, she has written four novels, and this one, "Blessings," is probably her best. It isn't often that a journalist can make a transition from opinion to make-believe. Quindlen has arrived.
The title is a double entendre — meaning the name of the family that is the focus of the story and the result of living a meaningful life. The story begins with a teenage couple driving late at night, headlights out, to the estate owned by Lydia Blessing, now 80 years old. They stop the car, jump out, leave a box and drive away. The next morning, Skip Cuddy, a 24-year-old single man who is caring for the estate, finds the box — which contains a baby girl asleep.
He decides he wants to keep her, so he takes her to his apartment over the garage and doesn't tell Ms. Blessing for some time. She is, after all, a formidable personality who has never shown either human sensitivity or a particular love for babies. In the meantime, Skip, who has a history of trouble with the law, does all his work on the estate while taking care of the baby. Often, he carries her in a sling while riding the lawn mower on the estate, or he lets her lie in the shade under a cover of netting to protect her from mosquitos as he works nearby.
Ms. Blessing is watching all this from afar, trying to figure out what he is doing. Finally, she goes to the garage and finds the baby. She confronts Skip about it, yet she agrees to help him carry out this secret relationship. She is startled at his humanity — and his determination to keep the baby, whom he names, "Faith."
"She's mine!" he says with conviction.
Upon this odd but arresting premise, Quindlen builds a gentle, loving story that emphasizes the importance of human relationships. As Ms. Blessing and Skip make a tenuous connection with each other, and the baby grows attached to Skip, Quindlen fills us in on their unique and separate histories. Each has suffered tremendous loss. Knowing that makes it easier to come to grips with the huge problem they face and to understand the approach they take.
In fact, over the course of the novel, Quindlen traces Ms. Blessing's entire history, and it is clearly important that we know it.
Quindlen's strength lies in her keen sense of characterization and her strong power of description. Her power of persuasion in opinion columns has translated here to beautiful, lyrical fiction writing. There are some surprising and remarkable twists that cannot be foreseen, and by the time we get to the not-entirely-satisfactory conclusion — but the only logical one — we understand this family and the surrounding community.
Most of all, we understand the power of redemption.
E-mail: dennis@desnews.com