A nostalgic romance, rich with Portuguese culture and a few surprising twists at the end.
A retrospective novel about a wounded Vietnam veteran and the complicated woman who helps him cope with his disfigurement.
Debut novelist Sharry presents his tale through three distinct storylines. The book begins in the 1950s as a young Portuguese girl is being forced by her parents to immigrate to the U.S. and marry Inacio Raposo, a boy of their choosing. Sharry then switches gears and introduces the reader to the Ahearn family in Massachusetts during the early 1970s. After losing his brother to Vietnam, Peter Ahearn returns home wounded and emotionally wrecked. Peter’s fiancee abandons him, unable to cope with his missing arm and blinded eye. Peter retreats into himself, moving to an isolated lighthouse where he works as light keeper with the primary goal of avoiding others. Just as the reader is immersed in Peter’s story, the novel jumps 35 years into the future to follow Peter’s nephew, Mark Valente. The reader learns that Peter disappeared many years ago; he has recently reappeared with dementia, unable to explain his whereabouts for the prior three decades. To unravel the mystery of his uncle’s life, Mark relies primarily on a journal that Peter left behind. As Mark sifts through the journal, the threads of the story finally begin to weave together. Mark learns that the Raposo family lived near the lighthouse, along with their attractive young daughter. As he tries to piece together what happened between the Raposos’ daughter and his uncle that might explain the disappearance, Mark too becomes enchanted with the young Ms. Raposo. Moving at a fast clip, the book at first presents like a light beach read, but the narrative explores many weighty issues—alcoholism, depression, physical abuse, adultery—which Sharry covers with insight and finesse. Although the book takes its sweet time in reaching its stride, the tale becomes quite gripping as the details of past mysteries unfold.
A nostalgic romance, rich with Portuguese culture and a few surprising twists at the end.Pub Date: Feb. 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-0615956817
Page Count: 358
Publisher: Coccinelle Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 19, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
