by Betsy Tobin ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2001
All the characters, however—even the self-revealing narrator—hold themselves too warily at arm’s length from each other, and...
The death of a local prostitute holds up a mirror to a 17th-century English village.
Despite her universally acknowledged profession, the warm-hearted woman called Dora was anything but despised. “Dora had chosen to bestow herself upon us,” reports the anonymous narrator, daughter of the local midwife: “She gave us grace and generosity and compassion.” Now that she has died after slipping on some snow-covered rocks and falling to the bottom of an icy ravine, however, her legacy to her neighbors is more problematic. Dora’s son Johann, whom everybody calls Long Boy, is piercingly unable to come to terms with his mother’s death. And the loss to Edward, scion of the Great House, where the narrator has been employed as a chambermaid so that she can hear the daily prayers, is especially acute. When Edward’s mother commissions a painter to execute her portrait, Edward secretly arranges with him for a likeness of Dora as well. But Dora is dead, and even her body has gone missing, stolen from her buried coffin. By the time it’s discovered again, the bone house of her corpse will be lighter by the weight of her unborn child. Gradually, gradually, the secrets Dora took to her grave ignite rumors of witchcraft at a time when such rumors are only a step away from accusations. Tobin is especially good at evoking a world in which magic still lives on the fringes of the imagination and at deftly sketching half a dozen stages of death-in-life and life-in-death that suggest a considerably more decorous reworking of Poe, right up to the climactic revelations.
All the characters, however—even the self-revealing narrator—hold themselves too warily at arm’s length from each other, and indeed from themselves, to keep this first novel from succeeding as a psychological study à la Mary Reilly.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7432-0196-5
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
Share your opinion of this book
More by Betsy Tobin
BOOK REVIEW
by Betsy Tobin
by Susan Crandall ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 2, 2013
Young Starla is an endearing character whose spirited observations propel this nicely crafted story.
Crandall (Sleep No More, 2010, etc.) delivers big with a coming-of-age story set in Mississippi in 1963 and narrated by a precocious 9-year-old.
Due in part to tradition, intimidation and Jim Crow laws, segregation is very much ingrained into the Southern lifestyle in 1963. Few white children question these rules, least of all Starla Caudelle, a spunky young girl who lives with her stern, unbending grandmother in Cayuga Springs, Miss., and spends an inordinate amount of time on restriction for her impulsive actions and sassy mouth. Starla’s dad works on an oil rig in the Gulf; her mother abandoned the family to seek fame and fortune in Nashville when Starla was 3. In her youthful innocence, Starla’s convinced that her mother’s now a big singing star, and she dreams of living with her again one day, a day that seems to be coming more quickly than Starla’s anticipated. Convinced that her latest infraction is about to land her in reform school, Starla decides she has no recourse but to run away from home and head to Nashville to find her mom. Ill prepared for the long, hot walk and with little concept of time and distance, Starla becomes weak and dehydrated as she trudges along the hot, dusty road. She gladly accepts water and a ride from Eula, a black woman driving an old truck, and finds, to her surprise, that she’s not Eula’s only passenger. Inside a basket is a young white baby, an infant supposedly abandoned outside a church, whom Eula calls James. Although Eula doesn’t intend to drive all the way to Nashville, when she shows up at her home with the two white children, a confrontation with her husband forces her into becoming a part of Starla’s journey, and it’s this journey that creates strong bonds between the two: They help each other face fears as they each become stronger individuals. Starla learns firsthand about the abuse and scare tactics used to intimidate blacks and the skewed assumption of many whites that blacks are inferior beings. Assisted by a black schoolteacher who shows Eula and Starla unconditional acceptance and kindness, both ultimately learn that love and kinship transcend blood ties and skin color.
Young Starla is an endearing character whose spirited observations propel this nicely crafted story.Pub Date: July 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-4767-0772-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 20, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
Share your opinion of this book
More by Susan Crandall
BOOK REVIEW
by Anthony Doerr ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 6, 2014
Doerr captures the sights and sounds of wartime and focuses, refreshingly, on the innate goodness of his major characters.
Awards & Accolades
Likes
23
Our Verdict
GET IT
Google Rating
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2014
New York Times Bestseller
Pulitzer Prize Winner
National Book Award Finalist
Doerr presents us with two intricate stories, both of which take place during World War II; late in the novel, inevitably, they intersect.
In August 1944, Marie-Laure LeBlanc is a blind 16-year-old living in the walled port city of Saint-Malo in Brittany and hoping to escape the effects of Allied bombing. D-Day took place two months earlier, and Cherbourg, Caen and Rennes have already been liberated. She’s taken refuge in this city with her great-uncle Etienne, at first a fairly frightening figure to her. Marie-Laure’s father was a locksmith and craftsman who made scale models of cities that Marie-Laure studied so she could travel around on her own. He also crafted clever and intricate boxes, within which treasures could be hidden. Parallel to the story of Marie-Laure we meet Werner and Jutta Pfennig, a brother and sister, both orphans who have been raised in the Children’s House outside Essen, in Germany. Through flashbacks we learn that Werner had been a curious and bright child who developed an obsession with radio transmitters and receivers, both in their infancies during this period. Eventually, Werner goes to a select technical school and then, at 18, into the Wehrmacht, where his technical aptitudes are recognized and he’s put on a team trying to track down illegal radio transmissions. Etienne and Marie-Laure are responsible for some of these transmissions, but Werner is intrigued since what she’s broadcasting is innocent—she shares her passion for Jules Verne by reading aloud 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. A further subplot involves Marie-Laure’s father’s having hidden a valuable diamond, one being tracked down by Reinhold von Rumpel, a relentless German sergeant-major.
Doerr captures the sights and sounds of wartime and focuses, refreshingly, on the innate goodness of his major characters.Pub Date: May 6, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-4658-6
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2014
Share your opinion of this book
More by Anthony Doerr
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
edited by Anthony Doerr & Heidi Pitlor
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.