A self-deprecating, self-aware—and engaging—postmodernist tale.
Smith (Under the Suns, 2014) tells the story of an aspiring author with the same name writing a book a lot like this metafictional novel.
Formerly suicidal Ches Smith is wandering the mall seeking inspiration for his novel when he sees an amusing bit of anti-corporate art—a mannequin dressed like a homeless person: “A fetid stench emanated from the display such that store employees held hankies over their noses at a distance....At the mannequin’s feet, a homemade sign suggested customers check out Macy’s new iBum line out back by the dumpsters.” Ches follows a trail of stickers to the food court, where he encounters the artist, Thalia Tanner, a formerly suicidal guerrilla marketer and singer in a punk-country band. After their brief meeting, Ches becomes obsessed with Thalia, sensing in her a kindred spirit, only to learn shortly afterward that she was shot to death later that day at that same mall. His psychiatrist suggests that Ches write about her as a means of dealing with his feelings. His effort is made infinitely easier when the ghost of Thalia—or at least Ches’ hallucination of her—begins appearing to him. She says that he shouldn’t write a novel about her but rather about his experiences with her, starting with their meeting at the mall. The book he writes, therefore, starts to sound very similar to the one that the audience is reading. As he attempts to find her killer, deal with her oddball family, and find his authorial voice, Ches’ quest becomes increasingly abnormal. And self-aware. And deadly. The prose of Smith (the author) perfectly captures the sardonic, nihilism-tinged voice of Smith (the character), whose every writerly affectation is eventually called out by someone he meets. “A writer writing about finding his voice?” scoffs a co-worker he asks to read the book. “Done to death, man. While you’re at it, why don’t you write about a Prohibition-era PI, or a zombie holocaust, or horny vampires?” While the humor and conceit may not be every reader’s cup of tea, the author manages to keep things intriguing and find an ending that satisfies.
A self-deprecating, self-aware—and engaging—postmodernist tale.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-942856-30-6
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Literary Wanderlust
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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