An excellent story of the American dream that manages a remarkable combination of breadth and depth.
In a family saga that spans the 20th century, Laing provides an expansive portrait of American life on the Mississippi in this first of two volumes.
Willy McGregor, ignoring his father’s advice, lies about his age to fight in World War I. But when he comes out the other side, aged and traumatized by the things he’s seen and done, he finds himself lost, without a home. It’s this setup—a broken warrior/poet in a shaken world—that gives the novel its potency. Much of Willy’s story is familiar: He finds a new home, puts down roots, starts a family, and meets the many challenges of these and other milestones. But through it all, Willy’s bone-deep knowledge of how frail happiness is shows through, even as he demonstrates a heroic tenacity for keeping its warmth alive. Willy’s idealized vision of contentment can’t last, but illness and loss make it shine brighter. Of course, the cycle of life doesn’t affect Willy alone, and the rich cast of secondary characters gradually changes as Willy’s children come of age and the focus of the story shifts. Eventually, Willy’s grandson, Dan, takes over the narration, and the story grows more and more distant from the old, blessed years as the book approaches the modern age. The story unfolds as if told by a fireside, sometimes breezing over years in an instant and at others, lingering over the details of singular moments and memories (“a husband smoking his pipe and reading the paper while his wife knitted, their eyes meeting for a moment, a warm connection, a glimpse of their palpable love”). As the first installment in a duology, the story doesn’t wrap up at the end, despite the book’s length, but the overall theme of the pursuit of happiness could scarcely be stronger. Even if there were no second volume to further chart this family’s peaks and valleys through the years, its genuine understanding of life would make it a stirring success.
An excellent story of the American dream that manages a remarkable combination of breadth and depth.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2013
ISBN: 978-0991173402
Page Count: 426
Publisher: Signal Flag Publishing & Promotions LLC
Review Posted Online: Sept. 11, 2014
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
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.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
© 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.
