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PLAYING THE FOOL

A solid but academic read that lacks the passion of its protagonist.

Scruggs’ (The View from Brindley Mountain, 2009, etc.) historical novel tells a story of 17th-century France, as viewed through the eyes of a traveling troubadour.

Charles Coypeau, who wrote under the pen name “Dassoucy,” was a real-life poet and playwright who performed throughout Italy and France in the 1600s and knew many famous historical figures. Despite pressure to follow in his father’s footsteps and practice law, Dassoucy instead followed his passion and embraced the arts. He was a prolific writer who used lyrics and verses to express opinions about political and social issues—a potentially risky business in an increasingly conservative society. In this novel, he relates the story of his life as he rests in a Paris dungeon, likely due to inflammatory statements he made in a satirical poem. He recalls his most famous works and his various escapades as he gambled and performed his way across Europe. Well-known leaders, including kings Louis XIII and XIV and Cardinal Richelieu appear, as does Molière and Cyrano de Bergerac. Dassoucy’s personal and professional success waxes and wanes as he attempts to find favor with the court and his peers. Scruggs delivers an ambitious tale, giving voice to an artist from the shadows of history. However, although Dassoucy is an intriguing character, the novel spends too much time documenting his travels and offers little insight into Dassoucy’s deeper emotions or motivations. It also often neglects to develop action and suspense to drive the plot forward, and instead gets bogged down in a recitation of names and places. Better-developed supporting characters, as well, might have allowed readers to gain new understandings of people more commonly found in European history books.

A solid but academic read that lacks the passion of its protagonist. 

Pub Date: June 23, 2013

ISBN: 978-1484140253

Page Count: 256

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2013

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WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD

Young Starla is an endearing character whose spirited observations propel this nicely crafted story.

Crandall (Sleep No More, 2010, etc.) delivers big with a coming-of-age story set in Mississippi in 1963 and narrated by a precocious 9-year-old.

Due in part to tradition, intimidation and Jim Crow laws, segregation is very much ingrained into the Southern lifestyle in 1963. Few white children question these rules, least of all Starla Caudelle, a spunky young girl who lives with her stern, unbending grandmother in Cayuga Springs, Miss., and spends an inordinate amount of time on restriction for her impulsive actions and sassy mouth. Starla’s dad works on an oil rig in the Gulf; her mother abandoned the family to seek fame and fortune in Nashville when Starla was 3. In her youthful innocence, Starla’s convinced that her mother’s now a big singing star, and she dreams of living with her again one day, a day that seems to be coming more quickly than Starla’s anticipated. Convinced that her latest infraction is about to land her in reform school, Starla decides she has no recourse but to run away from home and head to Nashville to find her mom. Ill prepared for the long, hot walk and with little concept of time and distance, Starla becomes weak and dehydrated as she trudges along the hot, dusty road. She gladly accepts water and a ride from Eula, a black woman driving an old truck, and finds, to her surprise, that she’s not Eula’s only passenger. Inside a basket is a young white baby, an infant supposedly abandoned outside a church, whom Eula calls James. Although Eula doesn’t intend to drive all the way to Nashville, when she shows up at her home with the two white children, a confrontation with her husband forces her into becoming a part of Starla’s journey, and it’s this journey that creates strong bonds between the two: They help each other face fears as they each become stronger individuals. Starla learns firsthand about the abuse and scare tactics used to intimidate blacks and the skewed assumption of many whites that blacks are inferior beings. Assisted by a black schoolteacher who shows Eula and Starla unconditional acceptance and kindness, both ultimately learn that love and kinship transcend blood ties and skin color.

Young Starla is an endearing character whose spirited observations propel this nicely crafted story.

Pub Date: July 2, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-4767-0772-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster

Review Posted Online: May 20, 2013

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013

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At the outset, this might seem like minor Morrison (A Mercy, 2008, etc.), not only because its length is borderline novella,...

A deceptively rich and cumulatively powerful novel.

At the outset, this might seem like minor Morrison (A Mercy, 2008, etc.), not only because its length is borderline novella, but because the setup seems generic. A black soldier returns from the Korean War, where he faces a rocky re-entry, succumbing to alcoholism and suffering from what would subsequently be termed PTSD. Yet perhaps, as someone tells him, his major problem is the culture to which he returns: “An integrated army is integrated misery. You all go fight, come back, they treat you like dogs. Change that. They treat dogs better.” Ultimately, the latest from the Nobel Prize–winning novelist has something more subtle and shattering to offer than such social polemics. As the novel progresses, it becomes less specifically about the troubled soldier and as much about the sister he left behind in Georgia, who was married and deserted young, and who has fallen into the employ of a doctor whose mysterious experiments threaten her life. And, even more crucially, it’s about the relationship between the brother and his younger sister, which changes significantly after his return home, as both of them undergo significant transformations. “She was a shadow for most of my life, a presence marking its own absence, or maybe mine,” thinks the soldier. He discovers that “while his devotion shielded her, it did not strengthen her.” As his sister is becoming a woman who can stand on her own, her brother ultimately comes to terms with dark truths and deep pain that he had attempted to numb with alcohol. Before they achieve an epiphany that is mutually redemptive, even the earlier reference to “dogs” reveals itself as more than gratuitous.

Pub Date: May 8, 2012

ISBN: 978-0-307-59416-7

Page Count: 160

Publisher: Knopf

Review Posted Online: March 4, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2012

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