Tenderness

June 28, 1993
Nurse Jesse Forbes first meets Wade Simmer when she rides out in 1902 to combat scarlet fever among rural families outside Harpersville, Tenn. Wade is considered somewhat dangerous: he is a loner and folks suspect he might be ``The Looker,'' a man who has been breaking into homes and blindfolding and fondling women. Jesse finds that Wade is a charming, if mercurial man who seems dedicated to obtaining an education for Jody, a young black boy he has taken under his wing. Jesse returns to town to discover that her father, Dr. Hollis Forbes, has hired Louella Lindstrom to be a housekeeper and help care for Jesse's half-siblings, Susan and Todd. Louella, a ``greedy, manipulating'' woman, conceals her poisonous personality from Hollis, on whom she has designs. Jesse is outraged that a mere housekeeper has such aspirations--an intriguing contrast to the book's benevolence toward Jody's hopes. When Garlock's ( A Gentle Giving ) story stays with simple, small-town characters and events, like Jesse's nursing and Wade's hesitant courtship, it is fairly successful (the contrived ``Looker'' subplot aside). But her attempts to make Louella a major criminal fall flat.