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BLOODVINE

An honorable failure: Awkwardly told, too long, and much too concerned with the smaller details of farm life—yet a touching...

A California architect debuts with a family saga about an Armenian clan that came to California after the Turkish massacres of 1915.

Half-brothers Andy Demerjian and Abe Voskijian arrived in the US with their refugee mother during WWI. Andy and Abe grew up in Fresno, California’s “Little Armenia,” and, like most second-generation immigrants, moved somewhat uncomfortably between the traditions of the Old World and the freedoms of the new. Although Abe served in the US Army during WWII and was very much at home with American culture and customs, both his wife, Zabel, and his mother-in-law, Angel, have kept to the old ways and are suspicious of life outside the Armenian ghetto. After the war, Abe and Andy inherit a small tract of rich farmland in California’s Central Valley and try to make a success of farming tomatoes. Though the land is good, the harvests are bad during their first years, and they soon find themselves in need of money to keep the operation going. In order to qualify for a GI Bill loan, Andy agrees to have the entire property put in Abe’s name, and the two borrow enough money to plant vineyards (in order to take advantage of the burgeoning demand for California wine). At first, Andy and Abe live together on the farm, but there are tensions between Andy and Zabel—tensions that only increase when Andy begins to date an Egyptian-American named Kareen. After Andy marries Kareen and moves out, Zabel tries to convince Abe to oust Andy from the vineyard altogether and claim it as his own. Where are Abe’s true loyalties—with his wife or with his brother?

An honorable failure: Awkwardly told, too long, and much too concerned with the smaller details of farm life—yet a touching and very real story nevertheless.

Pub Date: March 17, 2003

ISBN: 1-890771-63-5

Page Count: 310

Publisher: Heyday

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2003

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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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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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