A novel with so many painstakingly well-defined layers that readers may want to flip back to page one for a second read—or...
First-time novelist Von Smith tells a complex tale centered on Survivanoia, an engineering firm with a potential link to a deadly virus.
As the novel opens, Baroness Dacianna “Daci” Von Worthington has been named the new president of Survivanoia. The company specializes in unconventional products, such as radiation-proof jogging suits, and it also develops vaccines. But has it secretly discovered an effective vaccine for the Flower Flu, a disease which renders people blind, and is there credence to a class action suit claiming that the vaccine is being withheld from the public? The Baroness is determined to uncover the truth. This book offers an indisputably novel-length story, but it’s structured as a number of shorter stories, spotlighting different characters’ perspectives. Some initially seem to be digressions, such as one featuring Vonnie, a woman who starts a career in comedy by telling jokes about her estranged, and famous, rapper husband; Vonnie’s friend, Chloe, turns out to be a Survivanoia employee. In the ingenious, intertwining narratives, the author moves back and forth in time, sometimes repeating scenes from other points of view, without ever slowing the momentum of the main Baroness/virus plot. Some events are teased in one story before readers see them fully unfold in another. The stories boast a fetching assortment of characters, including an unemployed genius scientist; the former star of a canceled television series, who takes on his TV character’s persona, uses the show’s catchphrase and hums its theme song; two stepbrothers whose mothers are married; and a noticeably masculine man in a dress. The book’s final act focuses on the Baroness and wraps up the loose ends from most of the previous stories, including revealing the aftermath of a car collision. As the story clarifies the Baroness’ actions at Survivanoia, and her reasons for being there, it gradually makes her a more sympathetic and engaging character. The story finally comes together in a satisfying conclusion.
A novel with so many painstakingly well-defined layers that readers may want to flip back to page one for a second read—or even a third.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2012
ISBN: 978-1469905181
Page Count: 338
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 28, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
© Copyright 2026 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.
