SIXTY MINUTES FOR ST GEORGE

Name: SIXTY MINUTES FOR ST GEORGE
Author: Alexander Fullerton
ISBN: 1-56947-293-9

by Alexander Fullerton ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 2001

First published in England in 1977, this is the second in a series now nine novels long, featuring a thoroughly likable hero...

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In the prescribed Hornblower tradition, the British Navy again performs heroically, this time during The Great War.

“Marvelous chaps,” says a battle-weary warrior glancing about himself appreciatively. “Thank God, I’m an Englishman!” It’s mid-April 1918, St. George’s Day, to be precise, and the sea-land assault on Zeebrugge, Belgium—so appropriately prominent in British naval annals—has just been successfully concluded. In the thick of it all was Lieutenant Nick Everard, who, though severely wounded, behaved valorously, it need hardly be said, since Nick, the author informs us at every juncture, is demonstrably the Right Stuff, the stuff of which the real British navy is made. Only 22, this series hero (The Blooding of the Guns, 2000, etc.) has risen spectacularly to the command of a destroyer, though he’s not always been an Admiralty favorite. While obviously a brilliant sailor, he’s had an unfortunate way of “blotting his copybook” between engagements. Nothing really serious, yet the demerits are there, enough to cause occasional official irritation. In fact, at the outset of his current adventure, Nick’s on a short leash and has been told as much by the man who at that moment is his immediate superior and in absolute control of his naval destiny. Lieutenant-Commander Edward Wyatt, a cross between Captains Bly and Queeg, has taken an instinctive dislike to Nick, the feeling enthusiastically mutual. Through some luck and dollops of pluck, however, Nick’s sterling qualities shine through, and, as things turn out, Wyatt finds it in his own best interest to give them their due—at least partially. But these are piddling matters compared to the sea battles, the descriptions of which are as vivid as they are relentless.

First published in England in 1977, this is the second in a series now nine novels long, featuring a thoroughly likable hero submerged under a torrent of nautical detail.

Pub Date: June 1, 2001

ISBN: 1-56947-293-9

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Soho

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2002

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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CARRIE

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1974

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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New ‘Carrie’ Series in the Works at Amazon

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.