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ABOUT THE BOOK WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Published 1964 by Doubleday and Compnay |
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A powerful
novel about a deep-rooted conflict of values that splits a community being
transformed from countryside to suburb not far from Are these devoted combatants hopeless elitists? Yes, say
their opponents, who include the town supervisor and its business leaders,
who claim the new industry and development will lower the township’s soaring
tax rate and increase property values. But it is transparent to Forest Glen
denizens that developing the Kingsland Woods would serve primarily to fatten
the bank accounts of local businessmen and bolster the power of the political
cronies controlling township affairs. The battle warms up when the Forest Glen defenders of nature’s remnant discover that the law allows them to secede from the town and take the woods with them – if their plan to establish an independently incorporated village is approved by a townwide referendum. As the day of the vote approaches, the due process of law is abandoned, and the vested interests in town bring increasingly vicious pressure to bear on the would-be secessionists. The deepening clash profoundly affects the emotions, careers, and very lives of those caught up in the primal confrontation. When the smoke clears, it is evident that not all the heroes are on one side or all the villains on the other. When the Bough Breaks is a tale very much in the American grain, exploring the classic theme of whether growth and development constitute progress even as they extract a deadly price on the nation’s environment. |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS THE
CRITICAL RESPONSE |
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* NEWSWEEK: “A forceful chronicle of
violence out in the calm, cool countryside just 50 miles from Madison Avenue….
Richard Kluger’s varied, precocious career (he is now, at 29, editor of the
New York Herald Tribune’s Book Week) includes publishing a newspaper in one
of New York’s most beautiful suburban locales, Rockland County. Many of the
events described in his novel took place there in the last several years, and
are taking place today all over…. Kluger’s plot is exciting and his reporting
is first-rate.” * KIRKUS SERVICE: “All-around popular entertainment…. The typical political set-ups of suburbia are well examined here, and the nationwide concern with real estate will keep readers going with an uncomfortable sense of self-recognition.” *
* NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW: “it’s a splendid idea right off page one and vital to commuters….” * PUBLISHERS WEEKLY: “The central idea of this novel, whether to cut up a wooded tract on the Hudson River for new housing, is wrapped in a great deal of very clever conversation about life, love, and attitudes…very literate and interesting.” * * * SATURDAY REVIEW (Granville Hicks): “Everything works up to a slam-bang finish….” * * * * |
sides make a good
story, but the revelations of character produced by the pressures the fight generates
are fascinating…. Written with skill and perception, When the Bough Breaks is excellent entertainment.” Home About the book Critical response Excerpt
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS EXCERPT |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Pages 73-85
Chapter
Five WHIZZIE GILLETTE HAD BEEN FLYING around the house unmanageable all morning, firing her little bow and arrow at Orpheus, her big, slothful cat. “For all I care right now,” Ginny told joy Russell on the telephone, “she can let Orph have it right between the eyes and skin him for a bathmat.” “Stout heart,” Joy said in the big-sisterly tone she used talking to Ginny. “If it were any stouter, I’d have been dead two hours ago. Whizzie’s going to a birthday party this afternoon, so we’ve been practicing musical chairs since nine-thirty.” “We? Who’s we?” |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Pages 73-85 “Whizzie and me.” “Two-man musical chairs?” “Right.” “How does that work?” “Just like any game of musical chairs – except there’s only one chair.” “You play the piano, of course?” “Of course. And occasionally Orph paws out a few notes. But mostly, it’s me.” “Then who’s Whizzie’s competition?” “Also me.” “Doesn’t sound fair, exactly.” “It wasn’t. I’d plunk three notes and zoom! she’d hurl herself into the chair.” “Mmm, fun. I’ll bet she’ll wow ’em at the party.” “Either that or be disqualified in the first round,” Ginny said. Joy chimed a laugh. “Actually,” Ginny said, “I called to tell you I’m retiring Maggie – temporarily at least.” “No!” “Yes.” “But why? I love her dearly.” “I know. That’s why I thought you ought to be the first to hear.” “What’s the matter?” “I think Ken’s getting suspicious. He saw a rough draft of the new article and asked what it was.” “What’d you tell him?” “Just some notes for a short story. I don’t think he believed it.” “Why don’t you tell him about Maggie?” “He wouldn’t appreciate her.” “I bet he would.” “No – he’s much too responsible. Besides, he’d probably tell me how many different laws I was breaking and threaten to have me locked up if I didn’t quit it. So I did the article over. Maggie retires in it. And anyway – one conspiracy at a time is enough. This business this afternoon has me sweating bullets.” |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Pages 73-85 “Relax,” Joy said. “It’ll be a breeze.” Ginny sent Whizzie out to play in the backyard. Then, after darting a look once around the room to see that no spying eyes were stationed in the window, she got her rickety typewriter from the closet and settled it on her lap. From a stuffed compartment on the left side of the desk beside her, she unwedged a double-folded sheet of yellow paper and propped it against a large ball of pale orange wool. Then she took a fresh sheet of white paper from the drawer, wound it into place and copied: The Mrs. Margaret Bodice-Wight, president of the The At the final meeting, Mrs. Bodice-Wight gave a short talk on “The
Uses of Iambic Tetrameter.” She also read two poems. One was “Ode on a
Grecian Urn” by John Keats, a Romantic poet. The other was an original
composition of her own titled, “I Pluck the Stem from the Withering
Bluebell.” Both were favorably received. Ginny read it over carefully, an unconscious smile on her moving lips. Satisfied, she addressed an envelope to The Tappan Zee Times, folded the article into it, and then called Whizzie back in to be scrubbed and dressed. In a pink pinafore and white Swiss blouse appliquéd with a
grouping of tiny red flowers, Whizzie bounded on to the front seat of the car
and waited for her mother to work up courage enough to start the motor. After
a ritualistic pause in which she prayed silently for deliverance, Ginny gave
the great growling engine the spark of life. Sweaty fingers locked to the
wheel, beady eyes roving the road for stray children and dumb animals, she
chugged along the extreme right of |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Pages 73-85 She followed the snaky road into town, her head full of the imminent end of Maggie Bodice-Wight. Actually, she had had quite enough of Maggie – in her shrunken old dress with meadows of small, faded flowers all over it in lavender, her limp chest ballooning like a wet nurse’s after menopause and the rest of her lumpy shape popping out of its seams in a dozen places. And that house of hers, that dreadful loaf of gingerbread Gothic, all filigreed with balustrades and busy curtains and antimacassars like spider webs creeping up the arms of every chair. But worst of all was Maggie’s mind: a curlicued blob of fat, awash in a sea of jellied consommé. Yes, the time had come to put Maggie out of her misery. The road doglegged at the venerable Van der Walde sandstone, a monument to colonial craftsmanship called The Yonder House throughout the county for the old stone marker on its lawn that said, still legibly, “Yonder house built A.D. 1768, Peter Van der Walde & kin.” Who lived there now, Ginny had never discovered. Its owners reportedly made a fetish of their privacy. So she had invented names for them and embossed each with a face and conjured bodies to go with the faces. Old Peter himself, an enterprising patroon of enormous paunch, probably still survived, she thought, in one of the rear upstairs rooms – a dear dumpling of a Dutchman, 250 years old or so, who went for long walks along Forest Glen but only at foggy dawns and shadowy dusks, out of deference to the neighborhood. Past Joy Russell’s house, the road widened and the trees
cleared for a stretch, and she saw the valley dropping off to the left and
the fan of woods, worn and weary and waiting for the warmth of spring to
soften them. There now, where the woods began their climb up the ridge, was
Woodland Manor, the colony of new houses bunched on a clearing off |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Pages 73-85 She passed the At the intersection of Red Hill and Ginny knew Joy Russell too well to ask why she had volunteered to come along on the hateful mission. She was just thankful Joy had come, for with every step through the sterile cinder-block corridors of the town hall, her courage ebbed. By the time they found the tax assessor’s office, she was pale and limp. “You’re absolutely
sure they won’t recognize you?” she asked, hoping for a reprieve at the
brink. “Absolutely,” Joy
said. “This is my debut in town hall.” “Maybe they’ve
seen you at School Board meetings – ?” Joy fixed her with
a steely look. “I have been to one School Board meeting in my life – and
stayed demurely in the wings throughout. Now march in there and do exactly
what Ken asked.” For an angry red
instant, she thought she hated Joy for being so strong and competent. Then
quickly the feeling passed, and she knew it was herself she hated for her
thousand idiot phobias. She would send them all flying now, the way she had
promised Ken. She braced herself, took a short final nibble at her thumbnail,
smiled mechanically at Joy – and marched. |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Pages 73-85 “Yes, ladies?” asked the clerk, flipping through a stack of index cards. “Umm,” Ginny said, “we’re from the League of Women Voters –” It came out sounding more like a question than a barefaced lie. “Oh, the League,” said the clerk, unfurling horsy teeth that were too large for her kumquat face. “How nice. The League does fine work.” “Thank you,” said Ginny, voice firming a fraction. “We’re doing a project – we need a few numbers if that would be all right.” “Of course,” said
the clerk. “What sort of numbers?” Ginny pulled a
note pad from her purse. “It’s quite involved, actually. Umm, let’s see now
–” She studied the pad with lamby-faced puzzlement. “Well, it says we’re
supposed to take a particular neighborhood, you see, and find out the value
of all the property in it and how much each property-owner pays in taxes and
so forth – and then, let’s see – compare all that business with what it costs
for all the services these same people use – you know, like schools and
police and roads – things like that.” Joy tried to look
sweet. “Well, that’s what the girls asked us to get – all of them. And I
think we’d feel much better about it if we got what they asked us to. You
know – we wouldn’t want them to think we were trying to do a slapdash job.”
Then her voice hardened. “Unless, of course, you mind. I mean if you’d rather
not help us, we can just tell them that –” “No-no-no,” the clerk chirped, “of course
I’ll help. I just didn’t think your project was quite as ambitious as all
that.” She pulled a long thin book from under the counter. “Now if you’ll both
just sign this register, I’ll go check the block and lot numbers, and we can
get right to work.” “I’m afraid we wouldn’t know about that part
of it.” “You wouldn’t?” “You’d have to see
the supervisor for a breakdown on costs like those.” “We would?” “Yes, I’m afraid
so. I’m sure you’ll find him helpful.” Ginny turned to
Joy, the first flash of panic pulsing through her. “Ummm, what’ll we do?” “Suppose we just
get the assessment figures here,” Joy said, “and see the supervisor later.” Ginny looked back
at the clerk. “Is that all right?” “Surely. Now just
which area did you want to find out about?” the clerk asked. “Any one at
all?” “No, I think
they’ve picked one out for us.” She thumbed through her note pad in feigned
search. “Let’s see – it says the Forest Glen area. From |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Pages 73-85 “And which part of
that would you like?” “Which part?” “Yes,” the clerk
said. “I mean how many pieces of property would you like the figures for?
Ten? Twenty? You wouldn’t need more than that, would you?” Ginny turned to
Joy again. “Ummm, would we?” “I think we would,
as I understand the project.” “Well, how many
exactly would you need?” “All of them,” Joy
said. “All?” The clerk
frowned. “There must be a hundred or two hundred homes up there.” She gave
her girdle a distressed tug. Wouldn’t one or two blocks be enough?” “Register?” Ginny
said, bottling up a gasp. “Right on this
page here,” said the clerk. “It’s just so we have a record of who’s been in for
what.” And she trotted off to the other side of the room. “What’ll we do?”
Ginny whispered, jellying on the spot. “Sign the
register, what else?” “But then they’ll
know who we are.” “All right,” Joy
said, “then make up a name. They don’t care who you are.” “What name? Mata
Hari?” “That’s good. And I’ll be Martha
Washington.” “Joy!” she squeaked, nearly beside
herself. “What’ll I sign?” “Anything.” “They’ll arrest
us!” “For what –
impersonating the dead?” She put a calming hand on Ginny’s arm. “Look, you
sign Ann Boleyn. I’ll be Elizabeth Browning.” “Really?” “Really.” Ginny signed Mrs.
Henry Boleyn in shaky chicken scratches. Without glancing
at the register, the clerk returned, banged three great books on the counter
and, busily fluttering pages, announced that she was ready. Ginny’s hand was
so limp by then it failed to function. Joy discreetly removed the pencil and
pad from her grip and began writing as fast as the clerk called off the names
and numbers. In a while, Ginny drifted
off, inspecting bulletin boards and maps and trying out the water cooler
every now and then. Finally she posted herself on lookout in the open doorway
– for whom or what she had not the vaguest notion. But after she had been
stationed there about fifteen minutes, Joy heard her give a squeal and looked
up. Ginny was flapping her arms in mad semaphore and motioning at her to
come. Joy excused herself and hurried to her. Pivoting in little semicircles,
Ginny gestured down the hall. Joy poked her head out for a look. There,
striding toward them, were four men, two in dark business suits, one in a
suede zipper jacket, and leading the way – she had seen his picture in the
paper enough times to be sure – Tyson Danneman. “What’ll we do?
What’ll we do?” Ginny gibbered. |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Pages 73-85 Joy pressed her
hands to Ginny’s shoulders to keep her from vaulting through the roof. “All
right,” she said softly, “you come in here now and pretend you’re on line
behind me. Or something like that. So if they come in, too, maybe they’ll
decide it’s too long a wait and go away. Got it?” And she gently clamped
Ginny’s jaw shut. Eyes glazed, Ginny
trooped in behind her and pretended she was a line. “My friend here has one or two other
questions,” Joy told the clerk unblinkingly. “But they can wait till we’re
through:” Ginny waved hello
again at her and ducked back behind Joy. The noise from
Danneman’s party echoed louder and louder down the hall. Joy scribbled down
the numbers faster than the clerk tolled them off. They were up to the
properties just west of the woods when in the men marched. The clerk stopped
and looked up, with some relief. “Hello, gentlemen.” Danneman and Lance
Brody brushed by them and moved up against the counter. “Hello, “Busy at the
moment,” she said, turning away from Joy, “but otherwise fine, Mr. Brody.
How’s the missus?” “You know, up to
here with the kids,” Brody said. “You know Mr. Danneman here, don’t you, “Well, not
formally,” Joy tried not to
look, but he was right beside her, smelling rather powdery and lotiony and
not at all unpleasant. She sneaked a peek. He was wearing a
yacht cap with gold-threaded anchors, tilted just a bit off-center, a navy
blazer with shiny buttons, and creamy slacks pressed to a cutting edge. His
button-down shirt, an offwhite, had no tie, but bunched around the collar was
a Paisley ascot, yellowish and red and very clubby. MacArthur sunglasses
cloaked his eyes. All together, she thought, he looked marvelously
swashbuckling – and just a little bit silly. “Mr. Danneman and
these gentlemen want to look at the rolls for just a minute, “Surely,” she said
and looked over at Joy. “Would you excuse me for just a moment to help these
men?” Joy’s heart
thumped louder than she wanted it to. “I’d rather not,” she said. |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Pages 73-85 The clerk’s smile
contracted tartly. “Pardon me?” “I’d really rather not.” “We’ve been at it
quite a while, you know.” “I know,” Joy
said, “and I’m sorry. But this happens to be important.” Danneman gave her
a practiced once-over, sideways. Then he tipped his hat toward her. “We won’t
take more than a minute,” he said cordially. “I promise.” “I’m sure,” Joy
said firmly, “but I’d like to get this over with, if you don’t mind.” Then
she glanced away and stared straight ahead, not acknowledging him, and began
tapping the pencil against her chin in a show of firmness. “Shall we go on?”
she asked Brody gave a
growl. “This is important, too,” he said. “Very important.” Danneman threw a
chastening look at him and swung around full-face to joy. “These two
gentlemen,” he said, still amiably, “have come all the way up here from His voice was so
reasonably modulated and the request so modest that it was embarrassing to
resist. Then it struck her that the Philadelphians could be there for one
purpose only – as part of his project to dismember the woods. Her withering
resistance suddenly firmed. “We’ve been working very hard here,” she said,
“and I don’t think they stay open much longer.” Then, with her heel, she gave
Ginny the merest kick. “Besides,” Ginny
said, with superhuman effort, “I’m next.” The Philadelphians
shuffled impatiently. Brody’s head shook with rising annoyance. And Joy kept
jiggling her pencil between her fingers and looking straight at “I don’t mean to
sound rude, ladies,” Danneman persisted, “but I assure you this is as
important as we say it is. I can’t tell you how much I’d appreciate your
letting us have a moment of this good woman’s time – only a moment.” |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Pages 73-85 Joy told herself
so much humility had to be insincere. “Some people,” she said with great
dignity, “think the League of Women Voters is rather important, too.” And she
lifted her chin in defiance. “For crissakes!”
Brody exploded in the background. “The League of Women Voters!” Danneman wheeled around
to pipe him down again. For a while then he strummed his fingers on the
counter, lips taut, thinking what to say after three rebuffs. Finally he
turned back to Joy and said, still with remarkable calm, “Do you know who I
am?” His look, from
what she could see of it through his glasses, was harder now. “You’re
evidently some kind of a sailor,” she said. He kept looking at
her, clearly not amused. Then he picked his cap off the counter, gave it a
few contemplative twirls and slapped it back on his head. “My name is
Danneman,” he said. “I have some property in town.” “How nice,” she
said with a brief nod. “Then you’re not really a sailor, I take it.” His jaw tensed.
“No – not really.” Without looking
up, she said, “Well, whoever you are, I think I’ve made it quite clear that I
don’t intend to step aside until I’m finished.” “Yes – you
certainly have.” She glanced up at
him. “Then I suggest you wait your turn. It’s getting late and neither of us
is going to get what we want if you insist on being rude.” “Do you really
think I’m being rude?” he asked, still managing to keep his voice low and
even. “Yes, extremely.” “I’m sorry,” he
said, “but then I’ll have to be ruder still. I don’t know who you are or what
you think you’re gaining by being so difficult, but these men represent a
very large, very fine corporation that wants to buy some land from me and
build a plant here. Now that happens to be at least as important as the
League of Women Voters, if I may say so. And I think, if you don’t mind – or
even if you do – it entitles us to a minute of this woman’s time.” “It would be only
fair,” the clerk said to Joy. “I’ve been with you for quite some time now.” |
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WHEN THE BOUGH BREAKS Pages 73-85 Joy looked up at her
in anger. “The fair thing would be for you to finish up with me before this –
this gentleman is taken care of.” She half-turned to Danneman. “And if he
were really a gentleman, he wouldn’t have asked to interrupt us in the first
place.” She swung back to Brody banged a
fist down on the counter. “Let’s cut out all this screwin’ around,” he said.
“Is Ed Merrill in, “Oh, great!” Brody
snarled. “Tell you what, “I’d be happy to,”
“What!” Brody
howled. “Of all the goddam books, she’s using that one?” He aimed a furious
finger at it. Brody’s florid
face ignited. He looked for a moment as if he were going to come over, push
Joy away from the book and insert a fist in her stomach for good measure.
Danneman intervened for one last try. “Look,” he said,
“could I possibly bribe you – I mean in a nice way?” “Not possibly,”
Joy said. “I’ll try,
anyway,” he said. “I own the country club up at the lake. Now suppose you
bring your whole chapter of the League up there some day next week – or any
week you’d like – and be our guests for lunch and an afternoon of sailing.
It’s warming up now, and I think you’d find it very pleasant. What do you
say?” “That’s very
sweet,” Joy said, “and so sincere.” She looked over her shoulder at him. “But
playing games is not what the League is for.” Then she looked away, back at Danneman yanked his
glasses off and looked at her angrily, his gray scoops of eyes narrowed and
fierce. Then, without another word, he led his party out the door, wheezing
and fuming. They heard Brody shouting in the hall, “That’s a real nasty
bitch, that is!” |
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