Though questions of religious faith are touched on, the bestselling Diamant (The Red Tent, 1997) never wanders far from a...
Contemporary yet familiar tale about a consoling summer friendship as two women—one undergoing radiation therapy, the other unhappy in her marriage and career—share their fears and pasts as they walk a Massachusetts beach.
Set in Cape Ann, the story begins in the spring when Kathleen Levine, 59, diagnosed with breast cancer, emerges from surgery only to face radiation treatment over the summer. A librarian at the elementary school and the mother of two sons, Kathleen is having a hard time with her diagnosis. A Catholic who converted to Judaism when she married local businessman Buddy, she can’t help but remember how her sister Pat, a nun, died painfully and young from the same disease, even though doctors assure Kathleen that her cancer is different. In addition, Kathleen is tormented by memories of her son Danny, who was a toddler when he was killed by an out-of-control car. Fortysomething Boston writer Joyce Tabachnik is also feeling down. She’s written a pseudonymous bodice-ripper successful enough to finance a vacation house in Cape Ann, but she really wants to write serious fiction; her husband Frank is a workaholic; and her daughter Nina, on the cusp of adolescence, is no longer sweet and tractable. The two women, meeting for the first time after a synagogue service, start taking walks together along the beach. As the summer progresses, Joyce, who’s fixing up her house, suffers writer’s block and has a brief affair with a mysterious Irishman; Kathleen, more and more depressed, experiences panic attacks, especially when she's behind the wheel of her car. But their friendship sustains them, as Kathleen overcomes her fears of driving to warn Joyce on her way to a rendezvous that the police are after her lover, and owns up to Joyce the responsibility she feels for Danny’s death.
Though questions of religious faith are touched on, the bestselling Diamant (The Red Tent, 1997) never wanders far from a nicely written but conventional celebration of female friendship.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2001
ISBN: 0-7432-2532-5
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2001
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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