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1988

Name: 1988
Author: Andrew McGahan
ISBN: 0-312-15043-1

by Andrew McGahan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1997

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The latest entry in the Gen-X slacker sweepstakes comes from Australia, and adds an appropriate down-under twist to the familiar Gen-X fondness for doing nothing and writing about it. The title refers to the year of Australia's Bicentennial, a much hyped event that would of course turn a young man's fancy to rebellion. In '80s terms, rebellion means retreating into apathy and oblivion. The narrator of this angst-filled saga is Gordon Buchanan (also the protagonist of McGahan's first novel, Praise, 1993), a college dropout and would-be writer who lumbers along in Brisbane as a barman living in a crumbling house with lots of Chinese exchange students. He suffers, naturally, from ``a weakness of character, a poor diet, and alcohol.'' No surprise, given his low-energy existence and his sexual confusion—all de rigueur in the slacker profile. Things move along (sort of) when Gordon accepts the offer of an acquaintance to accompany him for six months to the outback. Together, they'll man a weather station in the remote North country, where their only companions will be a drunk and bitter Park Ranger, a dog, and a couple of resentful Aborigines, who now control the land. Completely unprepared for the profound isolation of Cape Don, Gordon and his buddy, Wayne, an aspiring artist, assume they'll take the opportunity to get creative. Instead, they drink, smoke pot, screw up their simple job responsibilities, and, of course, grow to hate each other. Then a week alone on the Cape pushes Gordon close to madness. A visit from a ranger who truly appreciates the wonders of remote Australia reminds the two Brisbane boys of what serious losers they are. This anti-romance of the road and of primitive culture suffers from the obvious problems of re-creating boredom—how do you do it without being boring? What's acclaimed as a fresh voice from down under sounds woefully stale up here.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1997

ISBN: 0-312-15043-1

Page Count: 320

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WHITE EARTH
by Andrew McGahan

- BOOK REVIEW
PRAISE
by Andrew McGahan

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.