The primal passions erupting in a small New York town depicted here by two-time Edgar winner Klavan (Animal Hour, 1993) gather with the force of a brush fire sweeping through dry grass. They are fueled by rebellion against the corrupt sheriff, Cyrus Doolittle. Doolittle handpicks local pols for top slots. He influences development. He won't talk to the local press except through press releases. He is opposed only by a plain middle-aged journalist, Sally Dawes, bureau chief of the Daily Champion, who has been Doolittle's nemesis for two decades ever since he killed his best friend and benefited from the murder of a seven-year-old girl. When the body of a drug-dabbling real estate lawyer floats up in the Hudson, Sally and her green new reporter, the patrician Henry Merriwether, begin to dig for fresh dirt. They also begin an affair, which threatens not only Henry's marriage (to a black woman) but also Sally's pristine reputation. Meanwhile, the aptly named Ernie Rumplemeyer, Sally's most zealous newsie, manages to get an interview with Doolittle's teenaged daughter—who has been confined to a mental institution (presided over by a doctor in the palm of Doolittle's hand) after threatening to expose Big Daddy's role in the killing of her punk boyfriend. What elevates Corruption above formula suspense is Klavan's ability to get into the heads of diverse characters, ranging from the crude Doolittle (given to such thoughts as ``I'll squeeze his balls till his eyes fucking explode'') to the idealistic Merriwether. Doolittle's thuggish undersheriff from the Bronx, Benoit, comes across as an almost cartoonish embodiment of venality and violence, but others, particularly Rumplemeyer, evoke pity and terror. A suspenseful, gritty look at what crawls under the apparently innocent surface of a small American town.
Pub Date: May 25, 1994
ISBN: 0-688-11816-X
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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