As usual, it’s hard to tell from moment to moment which disturbances in Smith’s universe (Bertie’s Guide to Life and...
More comings and goings at 44 Scotland St. and in its charming Edinburgh environs.
The main going is ongoing: the continued absence of Bertie Pollock’s basilisk of a mother, Irene, who’s been detained indefinitely in a Persian Gulf harem, where she’s organized a book group while she waits for the diplomats to sort out her return. Stuart Pollock may be a dab hand at statistics, but he’s not up to the task of managing Bertie, who’s just turned 7, or his infant brother, Ulysses, on his own. So he calls his own mother, Nicola Tavares de Lumiares, who leaves her husband behind in Portugal and flies to her son’s side, to the deep gratification of everyone, especially Bertie. Outside town, gallery owner Matthew Harmony, his wife, Elspeth, and their triplets are still settling into an old farmhouse Matthew’s bought from the Duke of Johannesburg, who’s constantly afraid that his right to his title will be exposed by the self-appointed authorities of the peerage, when Matthew discovers a secret room hidden behind a bookcase. Matthew’s assistant and former girlfriend, Pat McGregor, is so worried that Anichka, the young Czech woman who’s engaged to her psychiatrist father, is a gold digger that she contemplates desperate measures: throwing her own ex-boyfriend, irresistibly handsome narcissist Bruce Anderson, into Anichka’s path to test her motives and perhaps derail her schemes. Only portrait painter Angus Lordie and his bride, anthropologist Domenica Macdonald, seem to be moving forward on an even keel—so there’s little to say about them until Angus has a touching epiphany and composes a poem whose heartfelt spirits are perhaps a bit loftier than the actual proceedings.
As usual, it’s hard to tell from moment to moment which disturbances in Smith’s universe (Bertie’s Guide to Life and Mothers, 2015, etc.) will pass after a momentary frisson and which will lead to serious ethical dilemmas. A bit like life, when you think about it.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-101-97191-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Anchor
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A tour de force.
In 1974, a troubled Vietnam vet inherits a house from a fallen comrade and moves his family to Alaska.
After years as a prisoner of war, Ernt Allbright returned home to his wife, Cora, and daughter, Leni, a violent, difficult, restless man. The family moved so frequently that 13-year-old Leni went to five schools in four years. But when they move to Alaska, still very wild and sparsely populated, Ernt finds a landscape as raw as he is. As Leni soon realizes, “Everyone up here had two stories: the life before and the life now. If you wanted to pray to a weirdo god or live in a school bus or marry a goose, no one in Alaska was going to say crap to you.” There are many great things about this book—one of them is its constant stream of memorably formulated insights about Alaska. Another key example is delivered by Large Marge, a former prosecutor in Washington, D.C., who now runs the general store for the community of around 30 brave souls who live in Kaneq year-round. As she cautions the Allbrights, “Alaska herself can be Sleeping Beauty one minute and a bitch with a sawed-off shotgun the next. There’s a saying: Up here you can make one mistake. The second one will kill you.” Hannah’s (The Nightingale, 2015, etc.) follow-up to her series of blockbuster bestsellers will thrill her fans with its combination of Greek tragedy, Romeo and Juliet–like coming-of-age story, and domestic potboiler. She re-creates in magical detail the lives of Alaska's homesteaders in both of the state's seasons (they really only have two) and is just as specific and authentic in her depiction of the spiritual wounds of post-Vietnam America.
A tour de force.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-312-57723-0
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Oct. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2017
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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