In Cochrane's closely observed and confident first novel, three generations of a Minneapolis family struggle to regain equilibrium after the clan's patriarch is arrested for sexually abusing his granddaughter. Hal Lamm, a 60ish grandfather and salesman, is arrested for having molested 13-year-old Becky. The charges are corroborated by Hal's grown daughter Ellie, who tells the police about her own history of abuse by Hal; meanwhile, Maureen, another daughter, keeps quiet. Hal hires a good lawyer and gets off with probation, but the family can no longer sustain its denial. Becky stops eating meat and dutifully attends sessions with a psychologist, while her parents impose a big birthday party on her complete with kids she doesn't know and inappropriately lavish presents. At the same time, Ellie has a hard time sharing her agitation with her lumbering but sensitive husband: The incident has awakened both good and bad childhood memories, reigniting her rage at her father and also at her mother, Phyllis, who never believed her daughter's complaints. Now, Phyllis sleepwalks her way to Partners of Offenders meetings and contends with unfamiliar stomach pains until she numbly manages to file for a divorce. Calvin, the youngest Lamm son, is furiously determined to keep his own daughter, Grace, away from his dad. And so on: The siblings, their spouses, and children come together to help Phyllis sell the family house, in the process fumbling toward new trust. They'll all be tested once again when it's discovered that Phyllis is suffering from cancer. The recovery-from-child-abuse drama is less noteworthy here than the subtle, moving portrait of family secrets, hidden angers, and tentative forgiveness. Cochrane achieves cool control with carefully constructed scenes that yield small, psychologically resonant moments, lending weight and unpredictability to material that's potentially hackneyed.
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1997
ISBN: 0-385-48661-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1997
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.
Written with quiet dignity that builds to a climax of tragic force, this book about the dissolution of an African tribe, its traditions, and values, represents a welcome departure from the familiar "Me, white brother" genre.
Written by a Nigerian African trained in missionary schools, this novel tells quietly the story of a brave man, Okonkwo, whose life has absolute validity in terms of his culture, and who exercises his prerogative as a warrior, father, and husband with unflinching single mindedness. But into the complex Nigerian village filters the teachings of strangers, teachings so alien to the tribe, that resistance is impossible. One must distinguish a force to be able to oppose it, and to most, the talk of Christian salvation is no more than the babbling of incoherent children. Still, with his guns and persistence, the white man, amoeba-like, gradually absorbs the native culture and in despair, Okonkwo, unable to withstand the corrosion of what he, alone, understands to be the life force of his people, hangs himself. In the formlessness of the dying culture, it is the missionary who takes note of the event, reminding himself to give Okonkwo's gesture a line or two in his work, The Pacification of the Primitive Tribes of the Lower Niger.
This book sings with the terrible silence of dead civilizations in which once there was valor.Pub Date: Jan. 23, 1958
ISBN: 0385474547
Page Count: 207
Publisher: McDowell, Obolensky
Review Posted Online: April 23, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1958
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Jonathan Livingston Kitty, it’s not.
A lonely postman learns that he’s about to die—and reflects on life as he bargains with a Hawaiian-shirt–wearing devil.
The 30-year-old first-person narrator in filmmaker/novelist Kawamura’s slim novel is, by his own admission, “boring…a monotone guy,” so unimaginative that, when he learns he has a brain tumor, the bucket list he writes down is dull enough that “even the cat looked disgusted with me.” Luckily—or maybe not—a friendly devil, dubbed Aloha, pops onto the scene, and he’s willing to make a deal: an extra day of life in exchange for being allowed to remove something pleasant from the world. The first thing excised is phones, which goes well enough. (The narrator is pleasantly surprised to find that “people seemed to have no problem finding something to fill up their free time.”) But deals with the devil do have a way of getting complicated. This leads to shallow musings (“Sometimes, when you rewatch a film after not having seen it for a long time, it makes a totally different impression on you than it did the first time you saw it. Of course, the movie hasn’t changed; it’s you who’s changed") written in prose so awkward, it’s possibly satire (“Tears dripped down onto the letter like warm, salty drops of rain”). Even the postman’s beloved cat, who gains the power of speech, ends up being prim and annoying. The narrator ponders feelings about a lost love, his late mother, and his estranged father in a way that some readers might find moving at times. But for many, whatever made this book a bestseller in Japan is going to be lost in translation.
Jonathan Livingston Kitty, it’s not.Pub Date: March 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-250-29405-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
