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CAMBIUM

Name: CAMBIUM
Author: Chris Grayling
ISBN: 978-1933002798

AND THE LIFE OF LANAGAN MURPHY

by Chris Grayling ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 2008

Grayling creates rich worlds that speak to the love humans and animals feel for one another.

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In Grayling’s debut fiction, William Colbert is saved by a mysterious dog that will change his life.

In the afterlife known as Everlife, a procession of dogs and cats is called to gather at an ancient talking tree named Cambium. There, they receive their new assignments and return to Earth to teach humans new lessons and learn a few of their own. Lanagan, a beautiful white dog, embarks on a journey that will forever change the rules in Everlife when he is sent to find workaholic William Colbert. During a visit to his parents, William’s car hits a snowy drift and leaves him wandering aimlessly in the cold. He is later found by rescuers, with the mysterious white dog whose warmth helped him survive the night. The paramedics mistakenly take the dog—whom they christen Murphy—as William’s own, and William doesn’t correct them. With Murphy in his life, William finally finds balance and happiness, unveiling the lesson at the heart of Grayling’s novel: Animals help us to be more selfless, kind and whole. It’s not a lesson unique to William, however. After her best friend passes away, his mother finds solace in a cat named Peaches, who was also sent from Everlife. When Murphy eventually passes away, Murphy returns to Everlife where he misses his owner terribly. This sentiment leads him on a quest that takes him through jungles and mountains and across an ocean to ask Olde Crow, the oldest of creatures, if he can once again see William. The answer could change everything in Everlife. Grayling’s portrayal of Everlife is a unique imagining of the other side; natural habitats that mimic winter, summer, spring and fall give the animals places to roam and enjoy. Although the novel depends too much on sentimentality and melodrama, the emotions of both human and animal characters still ring true. The anthropomorphism of the animals can tend to be a bit heavy-handed at times, which may make some readers wish the animals were a little less human in thought and body.

Grayling creates rich worlds that speak to the love humans and animals feel for one another.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-1933002798

Page Count: 276

Publisher: PublishingWorks

Review Posted Online: April 4, 2012

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.