Rich visuals and an unusual mystery make this short novel an intriguing read.
The rare murder among neighboring tribes forces a young Native American man to quickly grow up as he hunts his father’s killer in Dickinson’s novel.
The golden foothills of the Sierra Nevada, studded with black oak woodlands and icy rivers, seem as timeless as the indigenous peoples who populate the caves and riverbanks of this unnamed era. The setting’s important because everything needed for survival comes from the land: Acorns and the occasional mule deer provide sustenance, and the earth offers up raw nuggets of gold that may ultimately prove to be one tribe’s undoing. Jupa of the Miwokitul learns this last part the hard way when, one morning, he discovers his father’s dead body. With the help of Keleli the Elder, the young “hunter in the making” sets out to find who killed Naketi and, just as important, why. A gold stone in Naketi’s pouch provides the first clue. Eventually, they suspect someone in the band of Nokotul people to the south of the Miwok caves. Keleli’s methodical investigation echoes other impressive detective stories, but it’s what happens in the background that really draws the reader into Jupa’s world. Dickinson marvelously conveys his research of the day-to-day lives of these Northern California peoples, and the details captivate. The constant pounding of acorns for porridge and tea, the revered arrow-making tradition, training a wolf pup to hunt, the integral myth of Cougar Man, Jupa’s first mule deer hunt—all capture the sometimes harsh reality for those dependent on nature. Dickinson weaves the details together with strong, evocative language that expresses the bitter cold of spring water and the sound of ravens constantly spying from overhead. The pacing slips a bit toward the end, but a lovely final scene rescues a somewhat predictable resolution.
Rich visuals and an unusual mystery make this short novel an intriguing read.Pub Date: Aug. 4, 2011
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 183
Publisher: Cetus
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
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
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