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A TRAITOR'S DAUGHTER

An autobiographical novel, first published in France, searingly re-creates one of the darkest periods in Russian history as it tells the story of young Anna—a descendant of intellectuals and nobles who had sided with the Bolsheviks. Anna, born in Leningrad in 1925, enjoyed a comfortable early childhood; but as Stalin began his campaign of terror in the early 1930's, all this changed. Her parents divorced, and she and her mother moved to her grandfather's small apartment. Food and fuel were short, but young Anna, though brought up as a Christian, yearned to be a communist so that she would ``be able to help defend our country.'' When her mother remarries and then dies in childbirth, this very relative idyll ends, and Anna goes to live with her father's mother and his naval-hero stepfather Diaka. Diaka's reputation and position provide a measure of comfort, but when the two older people drink, they quarrel, become abusive, and turn on Anna. Meanwhile, school classmates disappear—children of traitors are sent to reform schools—and living conditions deteriorate as the family is forced to give up rooms to avert accusations of privilege. As Anna enters adolescence, the terror begins to affect her own family: Diaka is arrested, as is Anna's father, and she's denounced by the school principal as the daughter of a traitor. An elderly relative tries to rape her, food is short, and now she also begins to drink. War breaks out, the Germans invade, and defying their orders, Anna is sent to a forced labor camp in Austria. But, fortunately, she has relatives in Paris, and this grim recital of horror piled upon horror ends as she is permitted to join them. A relentlessly dark litany of miseries—unrelieved by even the most fleeting lightness—whose impact is undercut by a stilted translation.

Pub Date: June 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-8419-1294-7

Page Count: 197

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1993

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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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