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
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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