LIGHT, COMING BACK

Name: LIGHT, COMING BACK
Author: Ann Wadsworth
ISBN: 1-55583-633-X

by Ann Wadsworth ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 2001

Wadsworth seems afraid to venture outside straightforward narrative realism—the characters we care about disappear well...

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A sometimes charming but more often inefficient debut about “a fifty-nine-year-old woman, happily married, infatuated with a young woman half her age.”

Mrs. Medina married Mr. Medina, a famous cellist, when she was 36 and he almost 60. It’s now two-and-a-half decades later, and while Patrick is on his way out, Mercedes is just hitting cruising speed. The two have had enough of a wonderful life that Mrs. Medina worries over the size of the chunks of meat that she cuts for her husband and closely monitors the one cigar he’s allowed each month. Still, when Mercedes’ latent instincts awaken with the arrival of Lennie, a young beautiful woman who works in a local flower store and who may have some dirty dealings, the impulse cannot be ignored. Mercedes confides in a university colleague, and it’s nice to know that even at the highest reaches of academia the simple phrase “I think I’m in love” can cause the stuffiest of intellectuals to abandon their scholarship and titter like teenagers. Mrs. Medina even tells Patrick about the affair—but not to worry: Patrick has an eye for the young “stacked” ones, too, and he’s a good sport about it. Patrick becomes a consistent source of humor and poignancy, and his portrait as a lesson on aging is worth the price of admission—but he’s not the main character. Mercedes’ affair comes and goes, and Patrick dies, and it’s a good thing that only the rich become lovelorn because in this world a broken heart is a serious condition requiring expensive therapy and a live-in cook. Mercedes in truth seems a little light. When she is slow to catch on to Lennie’s shenanigans, it undermines her weight as a serious intellect. Final message? Everyone loves beautiful young women—good thing there are enough to go around.

Wadsworth seems afraid to venture outside straightforward narrative realism—the characters we care about disappear well before the end.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001

ISBN: 1-55583-633-X

Page Count: 340

Publisher: Alyson

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

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

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.