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The River Within

Name: The River Within
Author: Baxter Clare Trautman
ISBN: 978-0984850815

by Baxter Clare Trautman ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 6, 2011

A fresh story weighed down by stale writing.

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An unconventional flirtation upends the lives of three women.

Trautman’s (Spirit of the Valley, 1998, etc.) fascinating heroine, Greer Madison, has forged a legendary career as a foreign correspondent in Russia and the Middle East—dodging bullets, drinking hard, chasing women and loving every minute of it. But now, “pushing fifty and nursing her third concussion,” Greer is tortured by guilt over the death of a young photographer she’d been wooing. She returns to California to recuperate at the home of old friends Doug and Darlene Richardson, who are dealing with their own grief at having lost a son in Iraq. Hard-living, openly gay Greer and reserved, traditional Darlene make an odd pair, but their friendship has spanned almost 30 years. This visit is different; Darlene refuses to discuss Chris, even with Doug or their daughter, Kate, and throws herself obsessively into homemaking and planning Kate’s upcoming wedding. Only Greer knows that Darlene is hiding the disturbing circumstances of Chris’ death from her family, a secret that consumes Darlene and threatens her marriage. Greer, pushed away by Darlene, becomes close with Kate, whose fascination with Greer’s adventurous life slowly reveals her ambivalence about the safe path she has chosen. The growing intimacy between Kate and Greer upsets the equilibrium of all three women and each is pushed to confront painful truths. Unfortunately, the emotional impact of these revelations is often dulled by the characters’ tendency to voice their feelings in platitudes and predictable metaphors. The shared love of modern poetry and penchant for quoting T.S. Eliot that connects the women only underscores Kate’s valley girl diction and Greer’s trite aphorisms. Chris’ letters home, which Darlene obsessively rereads, are similarly unsatisfying. As much of the book’s narrative is conveyed through letters and conversations, this leads to a flatness that is at odds with its dramatic subject matter. This is a shame, because the well-constructed plot is full of real surprises.

A fresh story weighed down by stale writing.

Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2011

ISBN: 978-0984850815

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Baxter Clare Trautman

Review Posted Online: March 5, 2012

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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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.).