A Catholic priest presents the parable of the rise and fall (or is it an apotheosis?) of a charismatic statesman and holy man—an ambiguous contemporary messiah—on a poor, deeply troubled West Indian island. After taking in the orphaned Jean-Pierre Cantave from the poor hamlet of Toumalie, Father Paul Michel, a Canadian missionary to the island of Ganae, acquiesces in the boy's request to be ordained abroad as a priest himself, watches Jeannot (as Father Paul calls him) return under the banner of liberation theology, and then sees him expelled from his order and relieved of his parish duties, only to emerge as the overwhelmingly popular choice for president after the death of the brutal dictator Jean-Marie Doumergue. When Jeannot, who repeatedly invokes the example of Christ in his speeches (their cadence as well as their subjects) and in his actions, seems to be following Doumergue into tyranny—surrounding himself with a cadre of close followers, refusing to share power with the opposition, staging show trials for symbolic ``oppressors,'' and dramatizing his mandate by fomenting continual demonstrations on the government's behalf—the church fathers threaten to excommunicate him. In response, he walks a fine line between political accommodation and self-justification through the mantra of ``the poor''—leaving even his loyal mentor Father Paul doubtful about his true loyalties. So far, we could almost be reading a recent history of Haiti; but when the long-awaited military coup against Jeannot comes, he meets it with a climactically Christlike stroke that's unprecedented in Haitian politics or political fiction generally. Moore's gift (Lies of Silence, 1990, etc.) for framing volatile political and religious questions in terms of particular human experience has never been taken to such extraordinary lengths as in this brief, ambitious, deeply unsettling novel.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-385-41515-X
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1993
BOOK REVIEW
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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