An experimental fantasy about government secrets, UFOs and the looming threat of America’s military-industrial complex.
Readers expecting a paranoid polemic about the mysterious and nefarious exo-political goings-on at Area 51 will be surprised: this is a novel. Readers expecting a fantasy structured around the cultural ballyhoo surrounding Area 51 will be surprised: this story is all true—or at least this is what the author wants us to believe. Or does he? It’s a playful strategy and will deeply satisfy readers who love fringe culture (e.g., cold fusion, UFOs, remote viewing, et al.), but as the author directly addresses his readers, challenging them to figure out if the prefatory letter to his novel is authentic and if he might not be a black-ops hero disseminating an intergalactic revelation, the spell is preemptively broken by being so on the nose with the strategy of ambiguity. What is much more likely is that like so many self-proclaimed investigators and investigations into Area 51 and the shadow government, this novel is a bold, intelligently conceived piece of wish fulfillment and self-promotion. No problem for addicts of the fringe, but readers unfamiliar with the world of UFO/conspiracy should be advised this comes with the territory; in fact, were it not for such ingenuous personalities, there would be no fringe culture of which to speak. The hero of the narrative, which is addictively broken up with presumably fictitious essays and reports from operatives and officials in the know, is the strikingly named Ben Skyles, a USAP (Unacknowledged Special Access Project) operative. It is with his Byzantine journey through the shadow world that the author reveals his message. A deal has been brokered between the military-industrial complex and extraterrestrials, and nations have powers of control that would make even the fabulist teleplay writers of The X-Files blush. For this kind of book, an author’s self-importance is finally not a hindrance but a benefit, and it’s more or less understood that the author is the real hero here. The narrative proper is engaging and fast paced, but again some of the spell of its climax is broken when the author can’t help but remind us just how diligent we must be in uncovering the truth about aliens and how lucky we have been to receive this particular revelation. A dynamic work of fringe culture that will entertain and intrigue readers if not convert them to the UFO religion.
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0615200996
Page Count: 322
Publisher: MOBO Inc.
Review Posted Online: Dec. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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