Broadcaster Richardson, billed as Canada's Garrison Keillor, suffers from the literary humorist's bane: He shoots for whimsy, but ends up wallowing in clichÇ. The novel, an elaboration of segments broadcast on CBC Radio, explores the background, opinions, and experiences of eccentric twin brothers who maintain a bed and breakfast on an island near Vancouver. An inheritance from their auto-mechanic mother, Virgil and Hector's stressless house sports a hefty library of books that Richardson deems worthwhile: Proust, Kingsley Amis, Iris Murdoch, A.S. Byatt, A.A. Milne. The boys have remained bachelors into their 50s—though Hector has a girlfriend, Altona Winkler, who writes for the scandalous local newspaper, Occasional Rumor. They live quietly with a cat named Waffle and a parrot named Mrs. Rochester, taking in guests who recount their impressions and stories in the brothers' guestbook. Richardson alternates sketches narrated by Hector or Virgil with guest accounts, each of which is identified as a ``Brief Life'': A woman recalls how she got her cocker spaniel; a lawyer reports on a harrowing New Age Weekend; a guest complains about Mrs. Rochester's cursing. The brothers' tales are less cloying, but they often seem phoned-in. ``The Top Ten Authors Over Ten Years at the Bachelor Brothers' B&B'' (Margaret Atwood, Anthony Trollope) and ``Virgil's List of Books for When You're Feeling Low'' (M.F.K. Fisher shares space with Vikram Seth) are two examples of Richardson's annoying list-making habit; there are stories about fanciful eggcups and a meditation on the subtle arts of reading and writing in bed. Flip-flopping in this manner puts enormous pressure on Richardson to be funny, which he almost never is, mainly because he's driven to celebrate the merits of a dowdy domestic life. Included are even some bad poetry and a muffin recipe. By and large, a collection of cloying cuteness and failed wit.
Pub Date: Sept. 10, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-14546-2
Page Count: 160
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
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.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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