A poignant story of loss, love and family.
Two people broken by World War I look to start over and take refuge in each other in this unique historical romance.
Williams’ debut tells the story of Francesca Sittoni, an Austrian turned Italian by the war, who immigrates to America with her husband, Cesare. He paid a dowry to Francesca’s father for the marriage, but he is unloving toward Francesca and her young daughter from her first marriage, Elena. When Cesare dies working in a coal mine, Francesca is understandably determined to stay in America since her family is too poor to care for her and Elena should they return to northern Italy. She answers an ad for a housekeeper on Kent Reed’s ranch in Willow Valley, Wyo. Despite Francesca’s pregnancy and child in tow, Kent agrees to hire her for one year, and he gets much more than he ever expected or wanted. As they raise Elena together amid hardships, they form a strong bond; affection inevitably develops between them. Francesca and Kent’s equally stubborn attitudes keep them apart romantically, even though they are forced to live in close quarters in the small house they share. The characters come from extremely different backgrounds, but as Williams skillfully weaves their lives together, they begin to see that they have much more in common than they originally believed. Kent is resistant to officially making Francesca and Elena his family; he feels unworthy and has struggled with emasculation after he was wounded in the war and his wife left him. Francesca thinks Kent only sees her as a live-in maid and cook—a poor Tyrolean woman set in the ways of the old country. It takes the neighbors’ help for them to see the life they have already created together and how much they care for one another. Williams writes with familiarity, easily transporting the reader back to the 1920s. Despite the technological, economical and social differences between then and now, the heart of the story is timeless. Beautiful imagery accentuates the compelling narrative that depicts an era gone but not forgotten.
A poignant story of loss, love and family.Pub Date: Jan. 3, 2012
ISBN: 978-0982557419
Page Count: 162
Publisher: Jargon Media
Review Posted Online: March 8, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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