Erudite tales that should prompt readers, just like the characters, to contemplate existentially.
A debut collection of seven stories follows the struggle of ordinary characters facing extraordinary circumstances.
Wilma Watts is happy in her small Wisconsin town, waitressing and spending evenings at home with her dog in “Wilma and Harry.” But something happens that will alter everything for her, a change that Wilma may not be prepared to handle. Characters throughout the book are much the same, resigned to complacency that ultimately won’t last. Terry Addams of “Sweet Liberty” is happy with his unattached existence, bouncing from port to port, until he realizes in Central America that he may be a scapegoat for murder. In “Pilgrimage: A Modern Parable,” English teacher Dante McCullough’s annual trip to pay respects to his late mentor leads the unbeliever to question the notion of a soul and salvation. While there’s a major decision for each character to make, not every story reveals the final choice or its consequence. What, for example, will Wallace Wiggins do in “Embarrassment of Riches: A Romance”? Newly rich after selling his plumbing business, Wallace craves the freedom enjoyed by the wealthy while also being torn between potential love for Eunice Ellis and lust for Eunice’s daughter Linda. Similarly, the titular mountain recluse in “What Maisie Knew” feels she should help Jimmy, a man in need—and very possibly a murderer. The stories can occasionally wallow in gloom but have their share of cheerful moments. Freddie, for one, was an apparently hapless, depressed alcoholic when the war veteran died in the snow in “Rain.” But Arthur realizes he might not have known his little brother once a posthumous search through Freddie’s attic uncovers poetry and love letters. The best story is also the collection’s finale, “The Master.” Oliver Eiger, a schoolmaster at prep school St. Swithin’s, truly appreciates his stellar position at home and work. His jubilance is nevertheless shattered when the headmaster convinces him to give an affluent businessman’s son a slightly better grade and Eiger learns that his wife, Brooke, may be cheating on him. It ends the book on a high, a story more amusing than bitter that adds a cynical spin to the title.
Erudite tales that should prompt readers, just like the characters, to contemplate existentially.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-941573-09-9
Page Count: 148
Publisher: Damianos Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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