Grayling creates rich worlds that speak to the love humans and animals feel for one another.
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
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
