by Charlie Hauck ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 24, 1993
Another version of the showbiz story about the Impossible Star who makes life hell for everybody—this time in the context of a TV sitcom. Jimmy Hoy and Neil Stein are a successful TV comedy writing team in Hollywood. Neil is the anxious one (not surprising, given his eight dependents and splashy lifestyle), and narrator Jimmy is the carefree single guy, dating dizzy little actress Kiki while staying cordial with ex-wife Miranda. By the end, Neil's marriage will be history, Kiki will have left town, and Jimmy will be ``wholly reconnected'' with Miranda, but all this is strictly background: the only person center stage is the gorgeous though talentless Geneva Holloway, who's already graced the cover of TV Guide when she's chosen for Jimmy and Neil's latest series (replacing a super-hostile, gun-waving black star). But from the start, she is trouble, insisting on ridiculous script-changes, getting a pedicure while listening to the story presentation, then treacherously dumping her handpicked, HIV-positive hairdresser (who will later commit suicide). Even Jimmy's threat to quit (``this is the most egregious fucking bullshit'') and Neil's suicide attempt do not throw Geneva off stride; what finally gets her dismissed is her direct attack on production company head Avery Schine (``You needle-dicked bug fucker!''). End of story? Not quite, for first- novelist Hauck is well and truly stuck to his tar baby; there follows a ludicrous epilogue in which Geneva, shooting a movie-of- the-week in Africa, falsely accuses a native of theft and has her hand cut off by the authorities. Crude, humorless, in-your-face stuff. Each chapter is preceded by a mildly amusing showbiz anecdote, maybe to compensate for the sour taste of what follows.
Pub Date: June 24, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-12152-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1993
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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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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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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