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RETURN TO SENDER

First-novelist Slegman, a former McCall's editor, makes tabloid headlines the stuff of inspiration—here, in a sometimes strained chronicle of surviving a dysfunctional family with the help of a starstruck grandmother. Set in the Kansas City of the 1960s and '70s, with period details kept refreshingly unobtrusive, the story celebrates the rocky growing-up of Roxanne, who, even at ten, ``had always had a deep and abiding belief that some day her life would be normal.'' This belief, however, is tested not only by the realities of her childhood but by the further traumas of adolescence. Roxanne remembers a childhood in which her mother, Emma, was usually ``doing one of two things—vacuuming or napping.'' Meanwhile, as father James daydreamed of something better than the present state of his marriage, it was Gramma who ran the household. Admired ``not only for her point of view...but for her eccentricities as well,'' Gramma tried to rear Roxanne and her younger brother, Gus, with a mix of intuition and aphorisms gleaned from her close reading of movie magazines. Later, the family's fragility is further threatened when James attempts suicide, then heads out to Esalen to find himself but instead meets Lydia, with whom he begins an affair. Gramma doesn't mind, as long as James stays with the family. But the affair has fatal consequences: James dies; Emma breaks down and has to be permanently hospitalized; 14-year-old Gus runs away to California, where he ends up living with wealthy, gay Fred; and Gramma and Roxanne—by now l6 and in the midst of a difficult adolescence—try to survive. Which they do, more or less. And when Gramma dies about the same time as her adored Elvis, her funeral becomes a celebration and an occasion for hope. A promising debut, with a terrific cast of strong and likably eccentric characters, that on balance tries too hard to make us laugh—and cry.

Pub Date: April 15, 1995

ISBN: 1-884235-10-7

Page Count: 230

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.

"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

Pub Date: June 15, 1951

ISBN: 0316769177

Page Count: -

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951

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MAGIC HOUR

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.

Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

Pub Date: March 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-345-46752-3

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005

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