First fiction, set at the end of WW I, in which a frontier Kenyan hotel provides rest, shelter, and large drinks to a fugitive Gypsy, wounded Tommies, murderous Irishmen, scheming Portuguese colonials, displaced Germans, an American cowboy, and a pretty Welsh woman. Bull's nonfiction Safari (1988) covered some of the same geography. Having sold the bulk of his British estate and mismanaged his plantation ventures, Adam Penfold finds that his fortune has dwindled to the White Rhino, a hotel in the Kenyan highlands. Lord Penfold and his oppressively horsy lady Sissy preside over the place, leaving management to their major-domo Olivio, a dwarf whose spying and sexual skills are state of the art. As there is much to spy out and many itches to scratch, Olivio is a very busy man. The end of the war has brought a new wave of settlers to the colony, hopeful men and women who are about to find out that the rich Kenyan soils are very choosy about what crops they'll support and that the old Kenyan colonials can be as treacherous as the worst villains in Europe. Anton Rider, with his gypsy skills and restless intelligence, is one of the few immigrants truly suited to the whims of Africa. Dashing Anton has become smitten with Gwenn Llewellyn, who has joined her badly crippled husband to carve out a new life and who has already made a couple of very dangerous enemies in a pair of violent Irish brothers. Adam and Gwenn are made for each other, but before they sort things out, there are swamps to ford, savannahs to cross, dalliances to be enjoyed, pythons to wrestle, elephants to cook, and legal business to sort out. Very nicely done. Bull has sensibly resisted the temptation to turn his racy African adventures into a sweeping, gabby epic, so everything moves at a cracking pace. Much ground is covered, but since the time is short, the stories are well contained.
Pub Date: May 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-670-83998-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1992
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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