A story of catastrophic loss that fails to stand out from the crowded field of books on grief.
A woman mourning the losses of her husband and young daughter goes on a cross-country road trip to rediscover her faith.
Kuder’s debut novel tells the story of Ali Berg, who has just suffered the losses of her husband, Isaac, and their teenage daughter, Zoe, in a car accident. Supported by her loving parents and siblings, Ali decides to go on a road trip to meet up with people from her past she is grateful for, hoping that the journey will help her remember what makes her life worth continuing. The novel also cuts from Ali’s present journey to her past with Isaac and Zoe, demonstrating the imperfect but ultimately loving nature of their relationship. Kuder has crafted a meaningful exploration into some of the difficulties of grief and a brave protagonist whom readers can root for as she travels. Unfortunately, though, many of the characters resemble mouthpieces for specific philosophies and perspectives on grieving more than fully developed people. For example, Ali’s friend Gwen embarks on an extended discussion of positive thinking when they first meet, saying, “I believe we each create our own reality….My world, my life, is whatever I believe it to be.” The dialogue, rather than representing realistic conversations, takes on a didactic, moralizing tone. The idea of going on a soul-searching road trip to meet people who were important in the past is an engaging one, yet so many pages are spent on people whom the reader hasn’t met before that incidents tend to blend together. What’s more, a character who serves as a potential love interest for Ali doesn’t actually get to appear or speak in the novel, a missed opportunity to get to know someone who might have helped her move on. While the premise of the novel is full of heart, it has too few three-dimensional characters to truly come to life.
A story of catastrophic loss that fails to stand out from the crowded field of books on grief.Pub Date: Dec. 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-0615925233
Page Count: 338
Publisher: The Telltale Scribe
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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