Crisp writing makes the most of a slight (and rather dated) premise.
A first from Australian author Rushby.
Almost all men are bastards. And a lot of them are on the bastard list that Gemma and Sarah have been keeping since their art-school days. Back then, with five good-looking young women sharing a house, it seemed to be raining men, resulting in lots of yearning, bed-swapping, dumping, and weeping—that’s how the list got started. It boasted big bastards and small bastards, fat bastards and thin bastards, white and black and pink and purple bastards. The list is so old it’s yellowed and so long the fridge magnets won’t hold it up anymore. After an evening of steady drinking (the only other thing these one-dimensional characters do a lot of besides complain), Gem and Sarah decide it would be a hoot to start a new list just like it on a Web site (www.allmenarebastards.com, of course) and invite contributions from all comers. Not surprisingly, they get thousands of hits from all over the world and not a few indignant responses from the bastards themselves. Famous in her small way, Gemma appears on TV. The Web site traffic increases. Charge for space on it? Why not? Gemma can now hire something she’s always wanted: a Personal Assistant. A male Personal Assistant, thank you. Chris is capable, adorable, and on top of everything. How gratifying that she can take him to her ex’s wedding as a dream date. She’d hate to show up alone to smile bravely at the biggest bastard of all. What to wear? Oh, hell, a shroud would be perfect. But Chris comes to the rescue and even saves her hair with a few deft swipes of a brush and a couple of cans of hairspray. He confesses: three sisters meant he had to figure out a way to get into the bathroom, and hairdressing was it. Miracle of miracles, he’s not gay. Hmm. Things are looking up.
Crisp writing makes the most of a slight (and rather dated) premise.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-7582-0825-1
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2004
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
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
