The protagonist’s troubled back story is well-trod territory, but his uncertain future keeps things lively.
In debut author Viceconte’ coming-of-age novel, a teenager’s attempt at redemption leads him from suburbia to jail to a shaky future.
How did David, a 16-year-old with a loving father who grew up in the safe suburbs of Connecticut, come to get caught trying to transport four pounds of marijuana out of New York City? Prior to his arrest, David had been kicked out of a boarding school in New Hampshire for fighting and was having trouble adjusting to life back in Connecticut. He felt like a stranger in his hometown and was failing most of his classes. Lucky for David, in the eyes of the law, he is a minor, and in the eyes of his father, James, he is a smart kid who made a mistake. James sends David to a program for troubled teens called Blue Ridge Outdoors. David will hike in the woods, learn how to start a fire without matches, and become accustomed to life without cigarettes. The exorbitant program is run by a shifty, closeted alcoholic named Paul, but where else can a boy with a violent past and a rap sheet straighten out? The opening chapters of the book, in which the reader learns about David and his degenerate friends, teems with characters Bret Easton Ellis might have dreamed up. The problem is that even the most degenerate of the bunch—a boy named Steven who gets into his own drug-fueled trouble with the law—would likely get laughed out of Less Than Zero for being too soft. The story picks up immensely with David’s departure for Blue Ridge Outdoors. Ellis (and writers who emulate him) have created young people that have done unspeakable things, but what would happen if you sent such youngsters into the forest for reform? David’s time in the program is full of possibilities. David is told not to concern himself with what lies ahead (“No FI, No Future Information” one of his counselors explains), and the reader, likewise, is kept guessing about how things will unfold for the reckless teenager. The suspense comes in finding out what David must do to succeed and what kind of person he’ll be when it’s all over.
The protagonist’s troubled back story is well-trod territory, but his uncertain future keeps things lively.Pub Date: July 10, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5214-1799-7
Page Count: 271
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2017
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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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