An intriguing but uneven tale about two significant historical figures.
A Texas homestead inspires a debut historical romance about the interracial couple who originally settled there in the 1800s.
Sylvia Hector is born in Africa, the daughter of a queen and king, marked with an auspicious symbol of a blessing on her head. Shortly afterward, her parents are kidnapped by Portuguese “stealers” who transport them to America on a slave ship. Neither parent survives the voyage, but Koko, a mother onboard, adopts Sylvia and raises her as her own. Sylvia leads a relatively stable life since Koko is purchased for domestic work in Albany, New York. Sylvia is even educated alongside the family’s son. Meanwhile, John F. Webber of Vermont is working as a sales representative for “Debtor Furniture,” which is manufactured at the state’s debtor prison, when he travels to Albany to purchase lumber. He is taken with Sylvia’s beauty and intelligence, and they quickly begin courting. When he seeks to return to Vermont with her, the community brands their interracial relationship as an “immoral dalliance” involving a woman whose social status is that of a slave. Once Sylvia becomes pregnant, the couple decide to move somewhere they can be together without judgment, which means relocating outside the borders of the United States to the Texas Territory and building a home and settlement on what will become known as Webber’s Prairie. They will have 11 children and eventually wed in a ceremony, marking the first 19th-century mixed marriage. As the Texas Territory changes hands and wars are fought, the family survives and prospers. Kemp is the pen name of a husband-and-wife writing team. The authors drew inspiration from their Texas property’s notable history to create the novel’s promising premise. The opening passages recounting Sylvia’s birth and her parents’ deaths are emotionally powerful. And the book delivers rich details about the Webber family’s involvement in key historical events. But the tale sometimes reads more like a history lesson than a sweeping literary drama. The Webbers’ movements would be easier to follow with the inclusion of maps. In addition, the dialogue is often wooden and frequently utilizes distracting dialects. At one point, Koko tells Sylvia: “Oh, chil’, your mama was like da queen a’ Sheba. She loved ev’erbody an’ ev’erbody love her. But mos’ of all, she loved you more than anythin’ or anybody in the whole world.”
An intriguing but uneven tale about two significant historical figures.Pub Date: Oct. 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-63363-349-0
Page Count: 264
Publisher: White Bird Publications
Review Posted Online: Nov. 28, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
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.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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