Grim doings, grim humor, and grim wisdom abound in this masterful tale; a book well worth reading.
Good versus evil, the Depression, the Dust Bowl, a vagrant elephant, and a traveling circus— this novel has all that and more: Step right up, folks.
Wright (The Sky Is Far Away, 2019, etc.) has created a superb character in his protagonist, young Hughey Gibson. By the world’s reckoning, Hughey is a naif and a dreamer. Early on, he sees an elephant moseying along the tree line of the Gibson farm (or what’s left of it). A hundred pages later, his improbable vision is vindicated, but his reputation for being a moony innocent still stands. Hughey’s opposite is Jakes McConnell, the epitome of bad company. He talks Hughey into going to the circus, and soon Hughey is accused of being Jakes’ accomplice in a burglary. So now there is no going back to Shelbyville, Missouri. Like it or not, Hughey is now a roustabout. And he does come to like it, especially when he catches the eye of Marlina Sova, the circus girl who rides the elephant. But bad luck and bad company keep dogging him until he is linked to a homicide (Jakes again). Through it all, people either believe in Hughey’s innate innocence or are dumbfounded by him. Wright is a wonderful writer (The elephant “slapped lazily across a crazed and wirehaired shoulder with its pendulous and serpentine trunk”). The big question is: What are readers to make of Hughey? Is he hopelessly naïve or naively hopeful? A subtitle might be The Education of Hughey Gibson, but what he learns seems to be a kind of fatalism and acceptance. Which is hardly surprising. This is a hard world of creepy criminals and corrupt cops, a lesson that over time he reluctantly accepts. As an apt coda, the final chapters feature the mother of all dust storms. Hughey finally “sees the elephant,” as the old idiom goes. Still, as the author skillfully shows, this world needs its Hughey Gibsons. And that turns out to be a terrible indictment of this world.
Grim doings, grim humor, and grim wisdom abound in this masterful tale; a book well worth reading.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-388-19341-6
Page Count: 285
Publisher: Artichoke Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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