by Charles Rudolph ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 9, 2013
An effective novel of recent history that rises above its flaws on the strength of a well-told story.
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In this novel of self-discovery set against the backdrop of a turning point in China’s history, a middle-aged man comes to terms with his bicultural identity and finally learns a sense of integrity and responsibility.
Abandoned by his Chinese mother shortly after World War II, Dan Young was brought up in Connecticut by an American father who took little interest in his son. Dan’s only ally in his youth was his English teacher, Bernie Fales, but Bernie’s mentoring did little to counteract the influences of parental neglect and racial hostility. After his relationship with a Native American woman violently ends, Dan gives up the last of his altruism and ideals and focuses his efforts on looking out for himself. One divorce, many failed relationships and a layoff later, he leaves a successful career in finance to spend six months teaching English at a Beijing university, hoping to learn about his mother and the Chinese heritage he never knew. Through his Chinese students and international colleagues, he learns about the challenges and complexities of life in modern China, especially the conflicts that ultimately bring him to Tiananmen Square. Rudolph (The Ashes of Santorin, 2012) presents a convincing picture of 1980s China, particularly the differences between the way locals and foreigners experience the country. However, the number of minor errors in the text—Spanish phrases are misspelled; one character leaves for the U.S. embassy in Taiwan, which had been closed for a decade—might lead readers to question its overall accuracy. Dan’s transformation at the end seems a bit too pat, particularly the sudden change in his relationships with women and his dubiously earned redemption. The story as a whole is engaging, though, and the fast-moving events that shape Dan’s journey will keep the pages turning.
An effective novel of recent history that rises above its flaws on the strength of a well-told story.Pub Date: May 9, 2013
ISBN: 978-1481046145
Page Count: 368
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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