A metaphysical thriller by the author of, among others, Telling Time (1995), this one about the human need for gurus both religious and secular. The events here, described from multiple points of view, are set into motion when Harry Field, an elderly professor looking after his baby granddaughter, allows Oliver, the child's absentee father, to take her to the park. Only too late do Harry and his daughter Judy realize that the child has fallen into the hands of the cult to which Oliver belongs—a group led by Miller, a man who claims to be God. Animated by distrust of Judy and a wish for power, Oliver is a cut-rate Raskolnikov who's inspired the fanatical loyalty of a lonely retarded man, Nick Foster. Oliver and the baby end up at the rural New Hampshire commune of Miller's ragtag followers. Davey Leo, a peaceable academic who hopes to win Judy's love by proving himself a hero, follows them there. But after Davey manages to reunite Judy with her daughter, other bizarre developments unfold: Oliver concocts a scheme to kill Davey that ultimately backfires; Loomer, Miller's possible successor, brings Davey to a secluded island for a strange mock trial; happily married Harry finds himself courted by his nostalgic old lover Lena; and Miller Farm, armed for what its population believes to be an impending Armageddon, edges toward confrontation with the local townspeople. Throughout, Wright highlights his characters' need for mentors and guides—from Nick's idolization of Oliver to Davey's awe of his colleague Harry—as well as their latent capacity for violence. Still, despite many moments of genuine emotion—the encounters between Harry and Lena, the appearances of the surprisingly sympathetic Miller—the characters in general are wooden embodiments of ideas who fail to lend plausibility to a disjointed plot.
Pub Date: May 20, 1997
ISBN: 1-880909-55-3
Page Count: 302
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1997
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.
Hunter’s debut novel tracks the experiences of her family members during the Holocaust.
Sol and Nechuma Kurc, wealthy, cultured Jews in Radom, Poland, are successful shop owners; they and their grown children live a comfortable lifestyle. But that lifestyle is no protection against the onslaught of the Holocaust, which eventually scatters the members of the Kurc family among several continents. Genek, the oldest son, is exiled with his wife to a Siberian gulag. Halina, youngest of all the children, works to protect her family alongside her resistance-fighter husband. Addy, middle child, a composer and engineer before the war breaks out, leaves Europe on one of the last passenger ships, ending up thousands of miles away. Then, too, there are Mila and Felicia, Jakob and Bella, each with their own share of struggles—pain endured, horrors witnessed. Hunter conducted extensive research after learning that her grandfather (Addy in the book) survived the Holocaust. The research shows: her novel is thorough and precise in its details. It’s less precise in its language, however, which frequently relies on cliché. “You’ll get only one shot at this,” Halina thinks, enacting a plan to save her husband. “Don’t botch it.” Later, Genek, confronting a routine bit of paperwork, must decide whether or not to hide his Jewishness. “That form is a deal breaker,” he tells himself. “It’s life and death.” And: “They are low, it seems, on good fortune. And something tells him they’ll need it.” Worse than these stale phrases, though, are the moments when Hunter’s writing is entirely inadequate for the subject matter at hand. Genek, describing the gulag, calls the nearest town “a total shitscape.” This is a low point for Hunter’s writing; elsewhere in the novel, it’s stronger. Still, the characters remain flat and unknowable, while the novel itself is predictable. At this point, more than half a century’s worth of fiction and film has been inspired by the Holocaust—a weighty and imposing tradition. Hunter, it seems, hasn’t been able to break free from her dependence on it.
Too beholden to sentimentality and cliché, this novel fails to establish a uniquely realized perspective.Pub Date: Feb. 14, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-399-56308-9
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Nov. 21, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
These letters from some important executive Down Below, to one of the junior devils here on earth, whose job is to corrupt mortals, are witty and written in a breezy style seldom found in religious literature. The author quotes Luther, who said: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn." This the author does most successfully, for by presenting some of our modern and not-so-modern beliefs as emanating from the devil's headquarters, he succeeds in making his reader feel like an ass for ever having believed in such ideas. This kind of presentation gives the author a tremendous advantage over the reader, however, for the more timid reader may feel a sense of guilt after putting down this book. It is a clever book, and for the clever reader, rather than the too-earnest soul.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1942
ISBN: 0060652934
Page Count: 53
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 17, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1943
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