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SNOW

Name: SNOW
Author: Betsy Howie
ISBN: 0-15-100237-8

by Betsy Howie ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 1998

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What begins as a sharp, clever debut comedy veers bewilderingly (and disappointingly) toward the surreal. Howie's 30-year-old (unnamed) heroine has been married for six months, but already it's clear the marriage isn't succeeding. She and her husband, Doug, have stopped having sex and can work through the tension between themselves only by buying antique furniture and refinishing it. By now their Brooklyn apartment is crammed full of antiques, Doug is growing ever more taciturn, and his wife is having frequent nightmares. Her father commiserates but isn't much help. Neither are her friends. Then a ruptured muscle in the woman's thigh begins to cause serious pain, and her doctor can offer no solution. Abruptly, she gets divorced and drives north to a cabin in the woods, determined to remain alone until she's figured out why she seems constitutionally unable to love. In the cabin, though, insight fails to appear. She watches the snow fall, growing increasingly depressed until she notices that her cat, Vinny, is talking to her. Vinny, an introspective, intellectual soul who was once Napoleon and claims to be evolving upwards, through multiple incarnations, toward an ever-simpler life form, tries to help his mistress analyze her troubles—even as the snow continues falling, the pain in the leg increases, and it becomes clear that this woman will have to venture into the wilderness in search of more firewood. Her wilderness adventure yields an encounter with a polar bear personifying the woman's rage: Only by ripping the muscle out of her leg (and letting go of past resentments) can she tame the bear. Back at the cabin, a beautiful visitor named Nellie reminds the woman of someone she knows— someone who, it turns out, is the narrator herself, as others see her. All our heroine has to do, it seems, is learn to love all the selves Nellie has revealed to her, and love for other people will become possible at last. A highly unusual—and irritatingly strange—debut.

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1998

ISBN: 0-15-100237-8

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1997

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.