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MOIRA'S CROSSING

Name: MOIRA'S CROSSING
Author: Christina Shea
ISBN: 0-312-20347-0

by Christina Shea ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2000

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A debut of some promise explores the relationship between two Irish sisters who immigrate to America in the late 1920s and never completely loosen their ties to each other, their past, and a long-ago death that haunts them still. Like so many first novels, the writing is good; the storytelling, on the other hand, is less smooth and persuasive as it moves from one beautifully set scene to the next. Life on an Irish farm, in a wealthy Boston household, and in a Maine fishing village are all vividly evoked as Shea presents the tale of Moira O—Leary and her younger sister Julia. When their mother dies shortly after the birth of their sister Ann, Moira helps their father, Matty, with the sheep, while Julia stays inside minding Ann and cleaning the house. Both enjoy their different duties, but when Ann is caught in a sheep stampede and falls into a coma, only to recover and fall again, family relationships become increasingly strained. Matty’s flock is doing poorly, Ann needs constant care, and when she dies one night on Moira’s watch, no one questions the cause. Although this silence is supposed to be troubling for years to come, it never seems more than a plot contrivance. Shortly afterward, the sisters head to Boston, where they both work as maids until Julia’s skills as a needlewoman are recognized and Moira marries Michael Sheehan. The Sheehans move to Maine, where Moira helps Michael on his lobster boat. Julia, now suffering from lupus, soon joins them. As the years pass, Moira has two daughters, Kate and Helen, Michael drowns, and Julia, who loved Michael too, becomes a columnist and is courted by her editor. A third generation is born once Kate marries, but the story of the two sisters— lives is as pallid as the Maine sunshine in winter. Too much made of too little.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-312-20347-0

Page Count: 288

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1999

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).