cover image Taking Rosie's Arm

Taking Rosie's Arm

Wil A. Emerson. Five Star (ME), $26.95 (200pp) ISBN 978-0-7862-3885-9

Troubled nurse's aide Taylor Thomas is force-fed scraps of stale wisdom by one of her elderly clients in Wil A. Emerson's well-intentioned but hopelessly clumsy Taking Rosie's Arm. Despite a life of poverty and neglect, Taylor was one of the smartest students in her high school. Ten years later, she's still trying to outrun her past and better herself, deriving inspiration from no-nonsense diabetic Rosie MacIntosh: ""I soon learned that almost every day she had a special message for me."" Such banality is typical of this substandard endeavor, which shows little and tells too much.