The fourth book in Wilson's Lampitt Papers, an on-going chronicle of 20th-century England and one man's effort to understand a representative life—a life that has become shrouded in intrigue and innuendo. James Petworth Lampitt more or less defined the Edwardian Age as a man of letters, from a distinguished family, who himself was friends with most of the important cultural figures of the time. Julian Ramsay, a successful radio actor, grew up in the shadow of the Lampitts. Orphaned in the war, Julian lived with his uncle Roy, a provincial vicar absolutely obsessed with the Lampitts and their lore. In previous volumes, Julian survives the '40s and '50s as a young man of great promise, one of whose goals is a biography of James ``Jimbo'' Lampitt. Unfortunately, he's beaten to the punch by the genial and oily Raphael Hunter, who claims to have discovered all sorts of sordid secrets about Jimbo. Now, Julian comes closer to the truth about the supposedly telltale Lampitt Papers, at the time in possession of Virgil D. Everett, an American pharmaceuticals tycoon, convinced by Hunter that the papers reveal that Lampitt had sexual peccadilloes much like Everett's. But before Everett takes a long look at his collection, he mysteriously plummets from a Manhattan skyscraper, a death similar to Jimbo's untimely demise. To complicate Julian's researches, he falls in love with his girlfriend's sister, a Catholic beauty married to the hapless Fergus Nolan, a scientist engaged by the Vatican to advise on the birth-control controversy. Julian's unresolved feelings for his dead parents result in a nervous breakdown, but not before venting lots of anti-RC sentiment, much of which Wilson seems to endorse. Nevertheless, Wilson's shrewd take on the late 1960s makes a nice companion to David Lodge's fiction on the Pill, The British Museum is Falling Down. A must for fans of Wilson's Lampitt books, but not the place to begin—much here won't make sense to those unfamiliar with Wilson's grand narrative.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-393-03875-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1995
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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