Art critic O'Doherty's first novel is a quiet, sure-footed, and sensitive glimpse into the inner workings of Enlightenment Vienna and the world of Mozart, the Empress Maria Theresa, and Dr. Franz Mesmer. In 1777, an 18-year-old girl by the name of Marie ThÇräse, named after the great (and reigning) Hapsburg empress, is brought for treatment to Dr. Mesmer, who is known—through his theory of ``animal magnetism''—for having previously cured cases of blindness. The lovely Marie is a gifted pianist whose talent—she plays duets with Mozart and performs often before the royal court- -has already earned her a royal pension. That her blindness is due to no organic flaw in her eyes is determined at once by the intelligent and soothing Dr. Mesmer—but his successful treatment of her hysterical blindness (mainly through massage of the body) also brings about an apparent diminishment in her musical skills. Marie's father, a ruthless courtier who desperately fears losing the remunerative favor of the Empress, is so alarmed at the loss of his daughter's performing ability that he schemes to bring about the disrepute of Dr. Mesmer and finally manages, in the face of the confused hysteria of his own crazed and deluded wife, to wrest her from Dr. Mesmer's care. This domestic and medical drama—unfolded in chapters told by the beleaguered Marie herself, by the good Dr. Mesmer, and by Marie's demonically self-interested father—allows O'Doherty to graze wonderfully amidst the living ideas of the Enlightenment, tasting its daily life, watching the French Revolution pass by, and offering jabs at the inadvertent narrow- mindedness of, for example, the rational Ben Franklin, who plays a part in the Commission denouncing the pre-Freudian Dr. Mesmer. Marie herself is pathetically captivating, and the novel she appears in is an intellectual tour-de-force of quiet powers abounding with nosegays of subtle historical pleasures.
Pub Date: June 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-679-41208-5
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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