An artless attempt to highlight traditional Catholic teachings among teenagers in contemporary Chicago.
In Rahlf’s (The Path, 2005) second novel, an academically gifted young man must complete his senior year in a diverse Chicago public school after his beloved, private Catholic academy is forced to close.
Thomas Clarke is a pious, hardworking student of prodigious gifts. A star in the classroom and on the football field, he’s more prone to quoting Virgil and the Bible than engaging in more common forms of teenage communication. However, he’s liked and respected by his classmates for his humility and good nature. The recession affects his family’s and his church’s finances, requiring that he leave the rarefied environment of his parochial school and enter the less-refined environment of public education. Although he’s placed in the public school’s AP honors class, he still must contend with people whom he feels are his moral inferiors. He finds a kindred spirit in Marie, who’s attended public school since her father’s tragic death. The two support each other as their fellow students act out in ways, such as bullying,that show resentment or poor character. The author’s erudition in matters of Catholic theology and philosophy informs the novel. For example, Marie believes, like Thomas, that emotional pain isn’t such a bad thing: “Because our society is so full of pride and vanity, I believe those who understand the value of suffering and who are able to suffer should do so to the greatest extent possible,” she says. However, this meandering novel does depict some stereotypical characters, including two overweight Jewish men who trade cartoonish dialogue (“Ach, don’t be a kvetsh”), without including any insight into them. Also, a long-winded religious diatribe against homosexuality, in the guise of a mock debate, is likely to offend many readers.
An artless attempt to highlight traditional Catholic teachings among teenagers in contemporary Chicago.Pub Date: Oct. 6, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615883397
Page Count: 216
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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