A gracefully written if uneven first novel from Ghanaian author Darko describes the slow but steady slide of her heroine from innocence to forced prostitution. Mara, a woman from a small village in Ghana, falls into a bad, arranged marriage to Akobi—a man who is at best neglectful and at worse (most of the time) manipulative, unfaithful, brutish, and violent. Having known no other lover, however, Mara isn't even aware that her marriage is unusual. Then, when Akobi sells her most prized possessions, she becomes angry enough to leave him—but the ever-deceitful Akobi mollifies her and convinces her to support his dream of working in Europe. And Akobi does make it to Germany. Not only that but, to Mara's amazement, he sends for her. Mara's unfounded faith in Akobi is smashed once again, though, when she realizes he has brought her there to work as a prostitute to satisfy his own selfish, material desires. This perhaps too-short novel—at times feeling overly compressed—is framed by the current, wizened Mara, with events being retold as Mara understood them at the time. Her early naivetÇ borders on comic, always with tragic results; but, altogether, the story has a dark ring of truth—even when each new abuse of Mara's body and trust leaves the reader wanting to disbelieve that any woman could put up with so much. Eventually, the narrative begins to sink under the utter predictability of disaster. But as Mara gains worldliness and strength in the face of the many abuses of Akobi, there's a tension that develops—a hint of the revenge that this woman may be capable of. Despite a not entirely satisfactory end and inconsistencies throughout—in tone, in a mix of styles: a unique tale by turns revealing, stupefying, and bitterly comic.
Pub Date: March 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-435-90990-8
Page Count: 140
Publisher: Heinemann
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1995
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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