Bradford has never really matched her A Woman of Substance (1979) in plot go-go and sentimental appeal. Here, again, is another eddy of love troubles among rich ciphers who circle limply at low speed. It's a good hundred pages into this biggie before the relationships among the personae are clarified. But center stage through it all is costume designer Rosie Madigan, who's been creating for film star Gavin Ambrose, an old friend. Gavin is about to launch a Napoleonic saga, which is handy for Rose since she has family in France: estranged nasty husband Guy; Guy's päre, the Comte Montfleurie, whom Rosie adores; and le Comte's widowed daughter-in-law and her children. As for action in France: there'll be one death, one divorce, one match-making. But, then, back in America, there'll also be a love blasting into Rosie's life— popular ``balladeer,'' Johnny Fortune, from a devoted Mafia family, is jolted with interest when Rosie admires his English Regency dessert stands and his George III candlesticks. Johnny's agent is Nell (another old friend), who's involved with none other than Kevin, Rosie's brother and an undercover NYPD cop. And guess whom he's out to smash? (Poor Johnny has never known what his uncles do for a living.) Never seen is Rosie's sister Sunny, gonzo on drugs and institutionalized, and Mikey, gone forever but where? Meanwhile, since everyone is gold-plated or famous already, it's love and more love that's the game. But can Rosie find happiness with a singing idol? Bradford latches onto detail like a terrier, so it's not surprising that the sex scenes are miracles of painstaking exposition, with the occasional prÇcis: ``Their mouths were locked; they were welded together.'' Compared to peers like Steel and Krantz, Bradford is all elbows—but count on her rep to nudge this creaking craft up the charts.
Pub Date: May 9, 1993
ISBN: 0-394-55959-2
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1993
IN THE NEWS
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
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
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