The documentary muse of northern California's artistic upper-middle-class (Second Chances, 1988, etc.) toys with but never tackles the dangerous, fashionable issue of incest. The story—such as it is—goes like this: Caroline, a handsome affluent woman in her 60s, is returning to San Francisco with her third husband, Ralph, after a five-year sojourn in Portugal, taken so that Caroline could separate herself from the dramas of her five grown daughters: Sage, a pale, stooped potter of 40, who five years ago was having a disastrous affair with an older local pol named Roland Gallo and who since has married a flirt (and worse) named Noel; Fiona, petite, blond, and chic, proud owner of a trendy S.F. restaurant named after herself, who now is having her own affair with Roland Gallo; Jill, slightly younger facsimile of Fiona, an investment banker and part-time call-girl who is carrying on an affair with (yes) Noel; Liza, married, with three children, and worrisome only because she seems so contented; and young Portia, only daughter of Caroline and Ralph, who's been drifting until she discovers she's a lesbian. Well, Ralph dies of a heart attack: Sage attempts to seduce her stepfather, Caroline's second husband Jim McAndrew, and, when she fails, divorces Noel and becomes rich and famous from her pottery; Fiona's restaurant goes under, and Fiona is jilted by Gallo, who (it turns out) has always really lusted after Caroline; Jill is caught in a call-girl sting and later suffers injuries in a car accident with Noel; Liza publishes a short story; Portia inherits a house and takes a woman lover; and Caroline flees to Italy, with Roland Gallo in hot pursuit. In case all this leads you to imagine that Adams's latest has a plot—it doesn't. But it does have lots of food and wine, plenty of architecture, and constant emotional innuendo delivered in the author's patented mannered prose.
Pub Date: March 22, 1991
ISBN: 0671028480
Page Count: 324
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1991
PERSPECTIVES
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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