Both well-crafted and revealing, this is an inspiring tale of humanity for readers of all ages.
A warm story of how one man’s transformation can move a people.
In his first of two novels set in rural Jamaica, California resident and Jamaican native McLean (Providence Pond, 2005) weaves an intricate narrative that shifts from the present to post-colonial days in the village of Albion. Related in the style of a rich oral history, the story follows Victor Rawlings, who works for the benefit of a group of engineers planning to destroy a remote, run-down building to make way for a new road. This aging structure turns out to be the “Balm Yard and House of God,” built by the now long-deceased archetypal hero, Brother Walk, whose metamorphosis from suppurating, runny-nosed village idiot to the region’s shaman rends the social fabric of the Albion community. McLean’s supple, easy-flowing prose conveys well the slow but rippling class upheaval caused by a disenfranchised individual mysteriously acquiring great healing powers and the resulting wealth and stature. “ ‘Change has captured me,’ ” pronounces Brother Walk as he embarks on his life’s mission to heal those around him. Alone, the depiction of Brother Walk’s growth as he wrestles with his inner demons makes for a classic bildungsroman, but McLean’s detailed attention to the plethora of characters reacting to such a catalytic protagonist adds a provocative sociological element to this already engaging tale. Eventually, all are forced to re-examine long-held values and life choices, and many soon learn to overcome their fears of change. This theme of openness to adaptability runs throughout the tale, and though the message becomes repetitive, the secondary characters’ struggles with it prove refreshingly realistic.
Both well-crafted and revealing, this is an inspiring tale of humanity for readers of all ages.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 0-9753297-0-7
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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