bookshelf

ISLAND

Name: ISLAND
Author: Charles Abbott
ISBN: 0-06-019050-7

by Charles Abbott ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 28, 1994

bookshelf

Pseudonymous first novel by a ``prizewinning author of distinguished nonfiction'' who died in 1992: an earnest, absorbing, if occasionally awkward, tale that explores the nature of love and happiness as it traces the descent and recovery of an isolated urban drinker. The only son of a poor Episcopalian minister and his bitter, hypercritical wife, Frederick Fay grew up in 1930's Connecticut in a state of acute shyness and self-loathing. His skill at fleeing schoolyard bullies eventually led to a track scholarship to Princeton, where Fred was so dazzled by his wealthy, preppy classmates that he internalized every detail of their manner and dress. Winning a job at an N.Y.C. ad agency, Fred doggedly pursued his climb up the social ladder, taking time out for a job in the Air Force during WW II. Then, back in New York, Fred resumed his career, married socialite Julia Fanshawe, and moved into an apartment in Sutton Place. Soon, however, the stress of keeping up appearances—despite no real friends, a loveless marriage, and an inability to perform his job—led Fred to drinking. When, in quick succession, he was fired from his job, discovered his wife in bed with a woman friend, and lost Fran Collins, his passionate but lower-class lover, Fred drank himself into oblivion until a therapist gradually pulled him out of his depression. Now, fleeing to tiny Sheep Island off the New England coast, Fred constructs a home for himself as another form of therapy. Gradually forging a few honest connections with residents, he even takes a job as the local garbageman in his efforts to learn how life should truly be lived. Miraculously, his former lover returns to him. Thus all live happily ever after in what is less a credible work of a fiction than a working-out of what it means to be real. A Pinocchio story for grown-ups: mostly affecting, even if its workings do show.

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1994

ISBN: 0-06-019050-7

Page Count: 480

Publisher: HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

bookshelf

SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

bookshelf

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

bookshelf

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.