Nightshade Author:Helen Topping Miller Nightshade is a novel that is sure to please the audience of Helen Topping Miller. This is the story of the strange family of Dr. Jonathan Strong., a man who owns 51 percent of the hospital he runs and thinks he owns 100 percent of his family. His children have lived so long under his fearful domination that it seems impossible for them to emerg... more »e and enjoy a normal, happy life.
To the outside the Strongs would seem to have all the essentials for happiness. Dr. Strong is highly respected in his profession and in the community. Cary, Leslie, Gnevieve, Miriam, and Brad, his children, are attractive, intelligent, and healthy so that there is every reason to believe they are good marriage bait. But when Miriam views the unhappiness her sisters have caused their husbands, she very poignantly expresses the family tragedy, "I'm beginning to believe the Strongs are bad luck to everybody that loves them. I hope nobody ever falls in love with me, ever."
It is no wonder then that the members of this family pathetically compare themselves to the nightshade plant, which destroys the unsuspecting insects lured into tasting its lethal nectar. Though they yearn to love and be loved like other people, they are constantly in conflict with one another and with those who try to love them.« less