bookshelf

THE OTHER ANNA

Name: THE OTHER ANNA
Author: Barbara Esstman
ISBN: 0-15-170410-4

by Barbara Esstman ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1993

bookshelf

A young woman's rites of passage in Iowa before the Great War- -limned in a first novel of much craft and too little vitality. In a story that blends a traditional loss of innocence with mythic Celtic beliefs, and that's set in a prosperous midwestern household of the early 20th century, Esstman recounts how Anna Berter is tested, falters, but triumphantly comes through (as is obligatory in the genre)—though at a price. As a child, Anna loved to listen to the stories told by the Old One, a housekeeper from Scotland, of ``selchies''—magical seals that Celts believe can assume human form. The Old One and her granddaughter Edwina provide the warmth and affection that the young Anna seems unable to get from her perfectionist mother (``the Prussian''). But this slightly flawed Eden is threatened when a son of her mother's old friend comes for an extended visit. He soon seduces Edwina, whom he equally soon abandons when she gives birth to a little girl, Rose, whom Anna's mother and father adopt against Edwina's will. Driven mad by grief, Edwina haunts the family, and Anna, forbidden to see her beloved Old One, is puzzled by her family's harsh behavior—but not for long. In sporadic episodes of defiance, she takes baby Rose to visit the Old One and Edwina in their tumbledown cabin, where she learns the extent of her mother's cruelty, as well as a mystery about her own birth. Time passes slowly, and adolescent Anna—torn between affection for her parents and abhorrence of their treatment of Edwina—confronts her parents only when it's too late to avoid the inevitable tragedy. But Anna will survive because she has the ``selchies.'' Just thinking of them, it seems, will keep her safe in the years ahead. Full of good intentions—and not much else.

Pub Date: April 1, 1993

ISBN: 0-15-170410-4

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

bookshelf

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

bookshelf

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.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER
by Harper Lee ; edited by Casey Cep

- BOOK REVIEW
GO SET A WATCHMAN
by Harper Lee

- SEEN & HEARD
The Snowy Day Is NYC Library’s Most Popular Book

- SEEN & HEARD
ALA Releases List of 2020’s Most Challenged Books

- SEEN & HEARD
NYT Readers Voting on Best Book of Past 125 Years

bookshelf

DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

bookshelf

Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).