The time given for this latest Tyneside hellzapoppin' soaper is 1960, but with its small-village ambiance, northern England diction, and roaring stable of sufferers, the novel seems embedded in an earlier period. Again, downstage center: an ``unnatural'' woman of awesome power; a good, strong man who strays; victimized young people; and clerics both saintly and awful. Cookson (The Maltese Angel, 1994, etc.) serves up the mother of all hellfire mothers here in Winifred Coulson, the wife of decent Daniel. Winifred, a ferociously pious Catholic, is a menace to her youngest son, Don. She's smotheringly possessive and is wild with grief that he is marrying Annette—a marriage pushed by Daniel so that Don might escape Mother. Winifred is also a physical powerhouse whose assaults and feats of furniture demolition are impressive. The two other Coulson adult children- -adopted son, stalwart Joe, and childlike, retarded Steve, the eldest—are pleased at the prospect of the marriage. The wedding of Don and Annette—two pleasant young people, presumably virgins at marriage (and wow! when Mother discovers they ain't!)—is performed, but then tragedy strikes. And eventually so does Winifred. Throughout, Daniel discusses his mournful lot with good priest Father Ramshaw, companionable and bibulous, who gently rambles on, along the way casting forth some priestly admonitions. He's there to lend an ear and hand as there are savage assaults, a birth and two deaths, a terrible apparition in the snow, and a ton of guilt (Daniel has found comfort outside the marital chamber). At the close, however, two couples are united, and ``Everything comes to him who waits.'' This latest domestic fusillade comes dangerously near the edges of parody, but Cookson's energetic storytelling pizzazz is a wonderment.
Pub Date: April 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-671-89650-4
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1995
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
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