by Christian Cameron ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 6, 2004
A treat for Revolutionary War buffs, especially those interested in the role of Africans and African-Americans on both sides...
An epic populated by the likes of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, various colonial bad and good guys, sympathetic Brits, and an African slave who leads his followers to freedom.
First solo effort by Cameron (the pseudonymous Gordon Kent, a father/son writing team: authors of the Alan Craik naval intelligence series), who gives his eponymous Caesar the birth name Cese Mwakale, a noble-born Ashanti. His Roman namesake, a helpful mentor tells him, was himself briefly a slave but later ransomed; the future emperor then spends a few pleasant months chasing down and crucifying those who have offended him. Though he likes the justice in that, Cese is less Caesar than Spartacus. After having aroused the ire of former master George Washington—who figures as a moody, often-unpleasant fellow—he’s banished to the Great Dismal Swamp. There, he organizes a slave revolt, becomes a scout for the British, who have promised him and his fellow “Loyal Ethiopians” freedom in exchange for military service, and begins to rise through the ranks. (Think Bernard Cornwell’s Richard Sharpe.) Naturally, he encounters Washington again, to great dramatic effect; as Caesar relates to a British officer, “We exchanged shots at the Brandywine. Something like a duel, I think. I’ve thought that it settled something between us.” Caesar also has a few cliffhanging run-ins with a murderous slavecatcher named Bludner—after Hannibal Lecter, one of the most sneeringly villainous figures in recent fiction. Cameron has done his homework well, peppering his pages with real-life incidents rendered with precise attention to detail; where he invents, he does so plausibly. His handling of regional dialects and the language of the time—so often a problem in historical fiction—is particularly skillful. More praiseworthy still is Cameron’s careful plotting, which serves up just the right amount of drama, just the right amount of useful-to-know information. Only in the last couple of pages does Cameron falter, as if reluctant to leave off with this delicious tale.
A treat for Revolutionary War buffs, especially those interested in the role of Africans and African-Americans on both sides of that fight.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2004
ISBN: 0-385-33776-0
Page Count: 592
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2003
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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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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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