Specializing in giving real people and events a light fictional touch-up, veteran British writer Massie (Let the Emperor Speak, 1987, etc.) now examines the destructive legacy of an Eichmann-like character and a Holocaust survivor, whose children meet, marry, and part. Concerned with the ends of things and the inescapable consequences of acts, this is one of those rare novels that would be improved by starting at the end—when the protagonists' tragic lives could be better understood by returning to the past. Instead, Massie introduces the two star-crossed lovers, Becky and Franz, just after they've declared their love, and goes on from there. Both live in Buenos Aires, where Becky's father, Eli, a Holocaust survivor, had come to teach economics but, now blind, spends his days listening to music. Franz lives with his mother and her Argentinean husband but sees his own father, the enigmatic Rudi Schmidt, an engineer, whenever he's in town. When the two families meet, Eli recognizes Rudi's voice; and though he gives his permission for the couple to marry, he takes actions that will ultimately destroy them. While Rudi turns out to be a prominent Nazi, wanted by the Israelis, Eli's background is not unblemished either. A famous economist, he had worked under the Nazis and, though sent to Auschwitz, had refused to go to Israel when released because, fearing commitment, ``I set myself up as a judge of right and wrong, even as a judge over Israel.'' The lovers travel to Israel for the trial, listen to the damning testimony, and are overwhelmed by their conflicting emotions. In the novel's second part, a new narrator details at a clip the couple's downward spiral into depression and tragedy. The sins of the fathers are indeed visited with a vengeance more plot- than character-driven, and, despite some good things, there are too many convenient coincidences and too much pretentious analysis for the big questions raised.
Pub Date: July 15, 1992
ISBN: 0-88184-849-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1992
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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