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RAISING HOLY HELL

John Brown's body all but rises from the grave in this energetic, multifaceted treatment by first-novelist Olds. Using the collage approach to historical fiction Ö la William T. Vollmann and others, the author using short, sharp images, crafts a story at once fact-filled and power-packed. The infamous scourge of pre-statehood Kansas and invader of Harpers Ferry is first seen in the act of self-flagellation on the floor of his Adirondack barn, preparing himself for God's work of inciting a slave rebellion by staging terrorist acts in the South. The initial impression of blood and terrible purpose continues: Brown hates his stepmother to the point of causing her serious injury; he gets his first wife with child so frequently that she dies in labor at the age of 31; he buries three of his young children head-to-toe in the same coffin when they die days apart. Finally, after decades devoted to the anti-slavery cause, he is driven to take up the struggle in Kansas, already bloodied by battles to determine its status as a slave or free-soil state. With his sons as primary agents, Brown massacres pro-slavery settlers, escalating the violence, then returns East to hatch a plan for bringing the bloodletting to slavery's heartland. Aided by substantial (though secret) backing from powerful abolitionist radicals, he takes arms and men to Virginia, fully intending to strike a blow that will spark civil war. By his daring, suicidal seizure of the federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry he succeedsand is content to swing from the gallows knowing that he has forced the issue beyond compromise. Olds's portrait of a zealot's life, peppered with racist quotations ranging from the Founding Fathers to honest Abe, gives a provocative, compelling view of the man and his timea view that, with home-grown terrorists still at work among us, seems timely as well. A satisfying and promising debut. (First printing of 50,000; author tour)

Pub Date: Sept. 8, 1995

ISBN: 0-8050-3856-6

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Henry Holt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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

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MAGIC HOUR

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

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