Wonderfully wacky, wise, charming, and romantic satire, filled with lovably eccentric characters who know the secret of true...
A clever, quirky, comic first novel about love and obsession, as seen through the eyes of a man who makes his living verifying world records.
J.J. Smith, Keeper of the Records for The Book of Records, has spent most of his life traveling the world in search of those who are desperate enough for immortality to kiss nonstop for 30 hours and 45 minutes, swallow 13 raw eggs in a second, or make a continuous crawl of 31.5 miles. But lately things have gone sour for J.J., who has just been dumped by his girlfriend because he doesn't really know what love is, foolishly believing that it has everything to do with symmetrical faces, pheromones, and the sound of someone's voice. Also, J.J. is in danger of being put out to pasture because he’s hit a particularly dry patch as far as records are concerned: his task now is to fine one worthy of notation in the book—and quickly. Going through his mail one day, he comes across a note claiming that in the tiny town of Superior, Nebraska, someone is “eating a 747, the airplane with a hump on top. Every day he eats some, no matter how bad it tastes. I sware.` When J.J. arrives in the heartland, he indeed finds Wally Chubb grinding up the 747 bit by bit and, yes, he's actually eating it. And the reason he's eating it is to demonstrate his undying, everlasting love for Willa Wyatt, who writes and edits the local newspaper. Willa is, in fact, a worthy inspiration for Wally's strange diet, so much so that J.J. also falls for her, while at the same time urging Wally to go for the record book so that his town may reap the economic benefits of his notoriety.
Wonderfully wacky, wise, charming, and romantic satire, filled with lovably eccentric characters who know the secret of true love.Pub Date: Aug. 29, 2000
ISBN: 0-553-80182-1
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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