by Celia Robinson Landis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 5, 2015
A flawed novel, but its charismatic protagonist may win readers over nonetheless.
An epic fictional account of an immigrant family’s settlement in the United States, as told from a little girl’s perspective.
Cyrella’s parents are both Russian Jews who fled their native country at the turn of the last century to elude persecution. They land in Saskatchewan, Canada, where her father, Max, owns and operates a general store. Eventually, he sells the business, moves the family to an apartment in Brooklyn, and immediately struggles to make ends meet. In a fit of desperation, he opens up a tailoring business in yet another brutally uncomfortable tenement. Max and wife Rosie have two sons (although another six die) and Cyrella, who becomes the primary protagonist of the story; her all-too-gradually blossoming maturity in some ways mirrors the family’s struggle to fully acclimate to new environs. Cyrella is both precocious and guileless at the same time, stunningly adept when it comes to bookish or artistic endeavors but painfully shy, even childish, when it comes to matters of the world. Early on, she suffers two sexual traumas that may have contributed to this stunted development, but the narration never directly ties her later struggles to these ordeals. Her love of learning is insatiable and sophisticated, though: she has a particular fondness for movies and books and discovers an enthusiasm for theater while away at summer camp. Her immaturity, accentuated by her diminutive stature, complicates her budding romantic longings. Finally, she meets an aspiring doctor and for the first time love seems unconfined to poetry and dreams. Author Landis has a background in poetry, which often shines through in the polished prose of her debut novel. At times, it reads like a series of disconnected anecdotes, and real tragedy, such as the suicide of Cyrella’s Uncle Herschel after he loses his life’s savings in the stock market crash of 1929, are given short shrift. Also, the book ends with an inexplicable abruptness, making it feel unfinished. The writing is undeniably charming, however, as is the main character.
A flawed novel, but its charismatic protagonist may win readers over nonetheless.Pub Date: Aug. 5, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5075-7960-2
Page Count: 258
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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