An engaging short-fiction concept which regrettably produces unengaging results.
A collection of 12 works of prose and poetry that aims to create new art through emulation.
Inspired by the apprenticeship of visual artists, who often copy the works of old masters in order to learn their art and craft, first-time author Hailes attempts to imitate great writers to create new literature. The poem “Sonnet #1: An Elegy to the Manque Midwestern Middle Class by William S. Franzen,” for example, rewrites a Shakespearean sonnet in the style (and employing the Midwestern subject matter) of novelist Jonathan Franzen. The short story “24th Century Metamorphosis by Franz Coupland” reimagines Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis as penned by Generation X author Douglas Coupland. But the results often prove more confusing than evocative, less literary imitation than pop-genre mashup, including references to Star Trek: “On the first day, Kendra Mix woke up to find she was not herself. She was Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise, NCC 1701-D. This came as a surprise to Kendra.” These pieces are so remote from their literary inspirations that the reader often relies on the attribution in the title (e.g., “Franz Coupland”) to identify the intended source, and none of these works stands well on its own. While the slender volume is itself appealingly stylish, with a stark white cover and single red band, the prose is sadly not. For millennia, writers have used imitation to learn their art, but such efforts are most successful when the rigor of close imitation is observed and gives rise to precise invention, as when Joyce Carol Oates rewrote Anton Chekhov’s famous 1899 story “The Lady with the Dog” in a contemporary setting, or when Jean Rhys took a character from Jane Eyre for her 1966 novel Wide Sargasso Sea. In the apprenticeship tradition, visual artists sought to closely copy those they admired in order to master technique, but these literary imitations combine the style of one writer with the content of a second, producing more confusion than clarity.
An engaging short-fiction concept which regrettably produces unengaging results.Pub Date: Jan. 17, 2013
ISBN: 978-0991782512
Page Count: 148
Publisher: What We Write Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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