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Some sage once said that no good deed goes unpunished. Nothing could be truer than the events that occur after Ridley Jones saves a small child from being run over in traffic. Her face is, of course, in all the newspapers, both local and national. Nothing prepares her for the ensuing maelstrom. Before the event, Ridley had been enjoying a reasonably successful career as a freelance writer, while living above a pizza parlor in the East Village. The trust fund left to her by her 'Uncle' Max would have allowed much fancier digs, but she likes the apartment she rented in grad school. He left the trust fund to her unencumbered by any conditions; he left a similar trust fund to her wastrel brother on the condition that he get clean of his drug habit and stay clean for five years. (He doesn't). The arrival of a manila envelope with a photograph of a young girl, looking remarkably like Ridley and a note saying "Are you my daughter?" sets off a dizzying chain of events, with Ridley's parents having to explain why there are no photos of her before the age of two. Their explanation of a basement flood rings true, and Ridley temporarily puts her doubts aside. But another message, "Your parents lied," sets her back on the road where she wonders about every aspect of her idyllic childhood. Like Alice's descent into the rabbit hole, Ridley is spun into a world for which she has no preparation -- falsified parenthoods, baby abduction, false identities, sham facilities to rescue abused children, abused children kidnapped and sold to childless couples. Ridley is a very well drawn character, secure in her family until that world crashes around her; so is her neighbor and lover Harley Jacobson, who was one of those abducted children. Ridley must choose between Jake and the man for whom her family thought she was destined since childhood, Zack, who practices medicine with her father. Her father is endearing and slightly pathetic, as he only very late realizes that crimes were committed around him. One has to admire the skill with which Unger juggles the different elements of the plot, feeding us information bit by bit until a stunning -- and totally unanticipated -- conclusion. It's perhaps a bit strange that we never hear anything from the mother whose child Ridley saved from death. Flowers would have been nice.
Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Devine, March 2007
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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