In a patchwork of family life is the pattern of Captain Leander's belief in the "unobserved ceremoniousness" of life which is a "gesture and sacrament toward the excellence and continuousness of things" and through parts of his diary, episodes in St. Botolph's, at the Wapshots' West Farm (on the New England coast), and in the gropings of his sons, Moses and Coverly, the lineage and heritage come through. Come through from an undated Independence Day to Leander's death after both the boys have left home because of Cousin Honora's financial blackmailing; after Leander has lost, regained and lost again the ferry-boat which was his reason for living; after the daughter — who was not his — of an earlier marriage- has tried to claim him; after his wife has converted the ferryboat into a fussy tearoom and gifte shoppe. Through the years Moses has been dismissed from a Washington top secret job, Coverly has become a part of rocket launching as a Taper and been deserted by his wife, and Moses' marriage to the ward of a distant, wealthy, unpredictable, vengeful widowed cousin has had time to turn from bad and then to good when the old harridan's ramparts burn, and the boys make good with sons to claim Honora's promised inheritance. And since the financial security is based on Wapshot virility, the Wapshots have their interest in women from a basically sexual approach; and since their father believes in the romance and nonsense, the joy and the cockiness of living, theirs is an uncharted course — for Coverly almost turning to homosexuality and Moses trying to maintain some balance in a household of financial dependents. The interludes of Leander's diary and of Honora's disturbances have a tart sting and the whole offers candor and a loving care for men and their concerns in a world tyrannized by women. A rowdy, bawdy, feeling, root-sensed New England gallery, this has its high — and not quite so high — moments for an audience which may suffer shock but never shame. Watch the critics.
Pub Date: June 15, 1957
ISBN: 0060528877
Page Count: 372
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Sept. 20, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1957
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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