In the rolling cadences and quirky dialect of Ireland's west country, a tepid first novel pursues the magic and emotional depths of rural life—though ultimately offers little more than scenery. John Davey, having come from London to claim an inheritance, starts out with intentions of selling his aunt's ramshackle farmhouse and ends up wholly converted to the Connemara way of life. Instead of cashing in and moving on, a growing trend among his country neighbors, John takes the advice of an actor friend and transforms the farm into a retreat for artists. While converting the buildings, he becomes acquainted with his neighbors, odd birds, each of them. There's old Ignatius, master storyteller and, to hear him tell it, acquainted with the fairies himself. Keeping him company are his two middle-aged twin daughters, Mary Anne and Anna Marie, who shuffle about without speaking and carve their names into everything they come across. The local postman doubles as a taxidermist, and Shovels introduces John to ``mountain tay'' as time is whiled away fishing with young Kierah or chatting with shy Patricia, who dreams of America. Meantime, busy London life fades from memory for John: ``When you are out, it's a wonder if things are happening as normal in the busy world, and another thing to wonder if you weren't just a little bit fooled by its business.'' The blue charm of the title is the indescribable beauty of the dusk sky, which has enchanted John as powerfully as some ancient hex- -though, unfortunately, it has little hold on the reader. While the meandering pace and eccentric characters have all the making of a fine, painterly novel, the story's finally overburdened with its own atmosphere, overshadowing any hint of a plot. Not unpromising, but this debut lacks the energy to deliver more than just a surface view of rural life.
Pub Date: April 3, 1996
ISBN: 0-85640-544-2
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Dufour
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1996
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
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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