A rare sequel that’s as much fun as the original.
The sucias are back in this follow-up to The Dirty Girls Social Club (2003).
Latina BFFs Usnavys, Lauren, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Sara and Cuicatl (the rock star formerly known as Amber) are in their mid-30s now, but they’re not particularly wiser, as becomes obvious during their annual girls’ getaway to New Mexico. Self-destructive journalist Lauren is battling her chronic bulimia while fighting the familiar sinking feeling that her man Amaury, a reformed gang member, is cheating on her. He is, with a 14-year-old. Plus-sized powerhouse Usnavys is married with a spirited young daughter, but her devoted husband Juan’s stay-at-home dad routine does nothing for her libido, leading her to seduce an African-American golf pro who falls hard for her charms. And one-time battered wife Sara might have built up her self esteem by hosting a popular Cuban cooking show, but the mere fact that she is even talking to her estranged husband Roberto (hiding in Argentina after killing their maid) is very bad news indeed. Other issues that the girls must deal with include fertility woes, racist in-laws and the awkward aftermath of a hot Sapphic interlude between two of them. Their misadventures take them back to where they first met, Boston, and the inevitable brush (or two) with death that helps them come to terms with what can and must change in their lives. Valdes-Rodriguez gives each of her diverse and far-from-perfect characters a psychological complexity that frequently rises above the soap-opera craziness, even if some of the narration is self-consciously overly descriptive.
A rare sequel that’s as much fun as the original.Pub Date: July 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-34967-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2008
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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