Disappointing.
A young Middle Eastern woman’s embattled—and elongated—coming of age, in a gracefully written if rather tepid first novel set in rural Iraq, Baghdad, and England.
An unnamed narrator relates in a curiously affectless voice the details of her childhood years, spent bonding furtively with a neighboring farm girl and her sprawling family, over the objections of the narrator’s Iraqi father, a well-to-do “trader in food flavorings,” and especially her English mother, who’s determined to impose upon her daughter the standards of Western culture. The early pages present a series of contrasts between the narrator’s incompatible parents, who disagree—often violently—over personal hygiene, diet, a woman’s right to work outside the home, and numerous other issues. A partial escape from their bickering is provided by ballet lessons; particularly by the florid presence of the narrator’s demonstrative instructor “Madame” and several members of the latter’s circle, including a sculptor named Saleem, ten years older than the narrator, who romances her efficiently, but is soon spirited away to fight in the border war with Iran. The family’s move to the busy metropolis of Baghdad is followed by the father’s untimely death, then her mother’s ordeal with breast cancer, for which she seeks treatment in England. The story ends there, some 30 years after its beginning, with the narrator twice bereaved, now employed as a translator, and of necessity estranged from both the man she loves and her homeland. Individual particulars aside, this is an awfully familiar tale, which often feels summarized rather than told, and is almost devoid of emotional resonance until its very late scenes, when the sufferings of the narrator’s mother are made graphic, painful, and genuinely involving. And matters aren’t helped by a leaden translation that frequently makes Khedairi’s dialogue ring false (“ . . . this is the twentieth century; the weapons of modern warfare have reached their peak in causing death!,” etc.).
Disappointing.Pub Date: July 16, 2001
ISBN: 0-375-42096-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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