Satirical look at the restaurant industry and those who feed and are fed by it, with witty conversations and an intriguing...
A restaurateur takes desperate measures in Lawrence’s delectably dark debut novel.
In an undisclosed locale (possibly London), chef Henry First busies himself in the kitchen of his restaurant, Firsts, preparing a meal designed to win a competition. Business has been off, as is, perhaps, his relationship with wife Dolores; it’s been some time since they made love. Loyal Dolores has news if only she can find the right moment to tell Henry, who’s drinking a bit much these days. An accident sends the kitchen into chaos, and then the judges arrive. Henry dutifully makes a hasty exit as critic Grant Whant muses about Firsts’ chances: The judges “would be concerned about ambience and their own self-importance. They expected a spectacle.” Patrice Czarny—magazine editor, “Amazonian Goddess” and Grant’s manager—heads the food division of Furness Kindle & Flint. She wants to buy Firsts, but Henry has no wish to join a “corporate crèche.” Given the behind-the-scenes mayhem, failure seems a foregone conclusion, but amazingly, the stock Henry created carries the day. Even his cantankerous, cancerous brother-in-law Felix Stoll likes it, its distinctive taste due to an ingredient seldom found in soup. Unstable Henry does the unthinkable, resorting to a successful if deranged business strategy; but in a media-steeped age, perhaps no one cares about the devil in the details. The show must go on and does, with deliciously droll scenes: For instance, when a staged, on-camera surgery goes awry, no worries—body doubles are available. As a character, tall white-blond Henry is a ghost in the making, a delightfully elusive vapor wafting through life, marriage and his past, struggling to remain afloat in fiercely competitive environs. In addition to wickedly comical moments, the novel serves up snappy dialogue, as when Patrice asks Henry: “Why can’t you think with your cock like a normal man?” The tone is surprisingly light, like an airy soufflé.
Satirical look at the restaurant industry and those who feed and are fed by it, with witty conversations and an intriguing man in the kitchen.Pub Date: June 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-0957494510
Page Count: 264
Publisher: Pelta Books
Review Posted Online: Nov. 20, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...
Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).
All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.
King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."Pub Date: April 8, 1974
ISBN: 0385086954
Page Count: 216
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974
PERSPECTIVES
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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