Fault Lines – Anne Rivers Siddons

Siddons’ new novel tells of a self-sacrificing housewife who is tempted to walk away from her old life. It’s apparent from the get go, though, that Siddons is working more along the lines of Waller’s melodrama than Tyler’s wry sendup. Merritt Fowler is exhausted from caring for her elderly mother-in-law, who’s suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. When a nasty argument compels her fragile 16-year-old daughter, Glynn, to seek refuge with Merritt’s glamorous sister in California, Merritt follows, leaving her workaholic husband behind. The three women soon decide to take a trip to the Santa Cruz Mountains for a little R and R. In a remote lodge in the redwoods, Merritt meets and falls for an amateur seismologist, and Glynn is wooed by a Warren Beatty-like director. Then an earthquake hits, and as the three women make the long, arduous trek to safety, they reevaluate their lives and goals.