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MERLIN'S HARP

Name: MERLIN'S HARP
Author: Anne Eliot Crompton
ISBN: 1-55611-463-X

by Anne Eliot Crompton ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 8, 1995

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From the author of A Woman's Place (1978, not reviewed) and several children's books: an amusing and inventive twist on the inexhaustively fecund Arthurian legends. Here, the narrator is one of the magical, somewhat fearsome, Fey—the fairylike beings called (erroneously) ``the Good Folk'' by wary villagers. Crompton's version tells of how Niviene, the daughter of the Lady of the Lake, has to leave the forest of the Fey with the magician Merlin in an effort to save King Arthur's Peace—a tale that begins rousingly enough as young Niviene and her friend Elana (whom Niviene suspects of having a Human heart) consider eating the huge, beautiful, drugged Gwenevere, who's been abducted by the Fey Otter Mellias. Merlin and the Lady decree that Gwenevere must be returned, since King Arthur, who saved their forest from the Saxons, himself might invade to avenge his Queen. So Niviene's beloved brother Lugh sets out, disguised as a knight- -and, yes, turns out to be you know who. While Lugh/Lancelot suffers almost Human attachment to that great ninny Gwenevere, Elana dies in a boat of flowers, and Niviene succumbs to a ``strong, handsome, terrified'' Human, none other than Arthur, with baby Bran the result. When little Bran is lost, however, a heartbroken Niviene begins her long search—a quest that will take her and old Merlin to Camelot, the horrifying den of Morgan le Faye, and, after miles of galloping over Britain, to a hermit's hut and the secret of the Holy Grail. Throughout, Niviene, who attempts to douse her Human side, reads auras, turns invisible, and smiles to hide her little pointed teeth. At the close, she'll find Bran (tragically) and witness Arthur's supposed death. Several fairy leagues in sophistication below the Elfin Kingdom tales of Sylvia Townsend Warner (which appeared in the New Yorker in the '60s and '70s); still, this spirited saga is told in lyrically appealing prose—and spates of rhyme. An easy double for young adults.

Pub Date: Dec. 8, 1995

ISBN: 1-55611-463-X

Page Count: 208

Publisher: Donald Fine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.

Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.

Pub Date: March 1, 2001

ISBN: 0-609-60737-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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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.