A historical novel trapped in the body of a bodice-ripper that will leave both history buffs and steamy sex aficionados unsatisfied. Fast (The Trial of Abigail Goodman, 1993, etc.) has written over 80 books. Eight of his novels are based on events of the American Revolution, and this latest one focuses on the Battle of Bunker Hill. The pivotal early confrontation on the Charleston Peninsula outside of Boston was a bloody disaster for the British and signaled the determination of the makeshift army of ordinary citizens. The Continental Congress had yet to appoint George Washington as commander of the American forces, and there was as yet no standing army, just a ragtag group of volunteers led by an equally ragtag number of men from various nonmilitary backgrounds. Here, much of the battle is seen from the point of view of Dr. Evan Feversham, a former Englishman who has joined the rebels. Once the book finally reaches the battlefield, there are brief moments of gripping drama: The courage of the outmanned and betrayed Americans facing the world's most formidable army is well rendered, although there is a tedious repetitiveness to much of the action. A bigger problem is that more than half the book focuses on the sexual proclivities of the British commanders, especially on General William Howe's attraction to a married American woman with ``breasts overflowing her bodice.'' While Fast uses the trysts to show the arrogance of the British leaders, a disproportionate amount of time (most of it dull) is spent on them and not on the actual (and much more interesting) battle. The whole novel has a slipshod, slapdash feel, cluttered with hurried, lazy characterizations (``a large, fat, and brawny seaman''). Like some hybrid animal, half fish, half rodent, whatever it is, it doesn't fly. (Illustrated with maps, not seen) (First printing of 35,000)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1994
ISBN: 1-55972-256-8
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Birch Lane Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1994
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
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