An amusement, but no more.
A pleasant diversion from the usually weighty Hansen (Hitler’s Niece, 1999, etc.): an amiable account of an ill-matched French couple who get lost in America and discover each other.
Natalie Clairvaux is one of those French people who, thinking they like America, actually like all the wrong things (Jerry Lewis movies, for example). A librarian in the Americana section of the Bibliotheque Francaise, Natalie follows US football, adores Hollywood movies, and even thinks highly of Walt Disney. One summer she decides to visit the US for the first time and arranges a bus trip from coast to coast in order to see as much of the country as possible. She doesn’t know, of course, that cross-country buses in the US are ridden mainly by petty crooks, mental cases, and teenaged runaways, so the first few days of interstates, cheap motels, and gas station food come as something of an unpleasant surprise. By the time Natalie’s estranged fiancé Pierre tracks her down in the little Nebraska town of Seldom, she is worn out by her adventure and almost glad to see him. When they miss the last bus out of town for three days, however, the situation looks dire indeed—until they meet up with some of the locals. Owen Nelson, mechanic and winemaker, puts Pierre up at his place and introduces him to the local vintages (which, astonishingly to Pierre, are quite good). Natalie stays at a local boardinghouse called Queen of the Revels, named for the annual three-day festival in honor of Seldom’s French founding father. Where’s the romance in this? Well, Pierre falls in love with Iona Christiansen, waitress at the local diner, while Natalie is pursued by the 50-something rancher Dick Tupper. And? That would be giving it away. Suffice it to say that sometimes you have to go a long way to see what was right next to you all along.
An amusement, but no more.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-06-051766-2
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Perennial/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2002
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.
Atwood goes back to Gilead.
The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), consistently regarded as a masterpiece of 20th-century literature, has gained new attention in recent years with the success of the Hulu series as well as fresh appreciation from readers who feel like this story has new relevance in America’s current political climate. Atwood herself has spoken about how news headlines have made her dystopian fiction seem eerily plausible, and it’s not difficult to imagine her wanting to revisit Gilead as the TV show has sped past where her narrative ended. Like the novel that preceded it, this sequel is presented as found documents—first-person accounts of life inside a misogynistic theocracy from three informants. There is Agnes Jemima, a girl who rejects the marriage her family arranges for her but still has faith in God and Gilead. There’s Daisy, who learns on her 16th birthday that her whole life has been a lie. And there's Aunt Lydia, the woman responsible for turning women into Handmaids. This approach gives readers insight into different aspects of life inside and outside Gilead, but it also leads to a book that sometimes feels overstuffed. The Handmaid’s Tale combined exquisite lyricism with a powerful sense of urgency, as if a thoughtful, perceptive woman was racing against time to give witness to her experience. That narrator hinted at more than she said; Atwood seemed to trust readers to fill in the gaps. This dynamic created an atmosphere of intimacy. However curious we might be about Gilead and the resistance operating outside that country, what we learn here is that what Atwood left unsaid in the first novel generated more horror and outrage than explicit detail can. And the more we get to know Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia, the less convincing they become. It’s hard, of course, to compete with a beloved classic, so maybe the best way to read this new book is to forget about The Handmaid’s Tale and enjoy it as an artful feminist thriller.
Suspenseful, full of incident, and not obviously necessary.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-385-54378-1
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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