A strange, unsatisfying debut.
A bunch of oddballs are transformed into customer-service representatives in this quirky first novel from British author Whiteley.
Born and raised in a fundamentalist commune, Amie knew little of the outside world before she was forced out with her father—the cult's one-time leader—for transgressions that were never explained to her. At middle age, Sam is coming to terms with the fact that the mild-mannered alter ego which once protected his identity as the Death-Defying Sputum has now become his actual identity. Meanwhile, Alma—if that's her real name—has fled Hollywood after a tell-all book and a very messy divorce have ruined her reputation and her career. These are three of the more colorful characters in Whiteley's debut. They are joined by a university drop-out who dreams of becoming a rock star; a spectacularly manipulative young chippy trying to scheme her way to the top; a onetime P.R. executive who may be a sociopath; and a serious, cynical woman who lost all of her friends in a horrible rappelling accident. This disparate group comes together in a new office building in a run-down British resort town, all of them seeking a better life through a career in customer service. Whiteley's mix of the wacky and the mundane is admirably cheeky, but the parts never quite come together to create a satisfying whole. For example, the presence of a retired superhero who once fought villains like the Fruit Bat and Feather-Tickler Woman introduces an element of the surreal into the story, but the fantasy never infects the realistic lives of the other characters. This isn't a novel so much as a bunch of underdeveloped short stories shuffled together like a deck of cards. Whiteley's observations about cubicle dwellers will be utterly familiar to anyone who has ever watched The Office or followed Dilbert in the funny pages, and the members of her large cast are not given enough space to grow into living, breathing characters.
A strange, unsatisfying debut.Pub Date: July 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-230-00744-4
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Macmillan UK/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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