Strickland (The Standing Hills, 1987) offers another fine English rural village tale of the 19th century—a time when marriage for some women could be a vise, forever set in place by the ancient taboos and mores of an isolated society. Beatrice Randall, against the wishes of her gentle and intelligent family, married somewhat beneath her (in her bumptious youth, she would have married anyone who professed love) to miller Daniel Fayerdon, who sniffed out the business advantage of becoming related to Beatrice's corn-merchant brother-in-law. But he also enjoyed the prospect of a lady being his to ``order and humiliate.'' Now, Beatrice is miserable in the home of callous Daniel, who's greedy, boorish, and abusive to all—except his witchlike mother and a cat. Then, however, Beatrice finds a wonderful if dangerous joy with Boaz Holt, a homesteader whose wife, Esther, has left him, felled as she was by the grief at the loss of their child. Beatrice becomes pregnant by Boaz. Meanwhile, echoing Beatrice's disastrous marriage and aftermath is working woman Canader, who's been actually ``sold'' in a ``halter divorce'' (which Beatrice, hidden, witnessed) by her hated ne'er-do-well husband Nat to loving, tender Matthew Garth. The two women, grasping at joy instead of hatred, become friends. But Daniel is plotting evil for Matthew, and Beatrice and Boaz—even before Esther's return—realize that there was love between them ``but it was not for each other.'' Before a peaceful outcome, there's violence—and Daniel becomes a victim of his own ugly nature. A story of trapped women and haunted men within an almost articulate countryside—from the pale greens of spring to winds ``that could force men to their knees.'' Strickland writes with the sinewy simplicity and chimney-corner warmth of a riveting storyteller.
Pub Date: May 23, 1991
ISBN: 0-312-05844-6
Page Count: 224
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1991
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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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