Within his taciturn coming-of-middle-age melodrama, debut author Whalen includes a veritable dictionary of first world problems.
Craig Duffy, divorced and childless, lives in Florida with his lovable canine, Detective Green (named for the character from Law & Order). He loudly resents supporting an aging father with increasing dementia. His mother has died, his sister lives in what he sees as blissful detachment across the country, and he’s prone to making melancholy, pseudophilosophical remarks—“now is a particle not a wave”—about how caring for an ill parent affects an adult child, especially how it affects that child’s job and personal freedom. With Craig’s days interrupted by his father’s condition and problems reaching a crescendo at work, he decides to hit the road with Dad—from suburban Florida down to the Keys. On the way, they spend time talking and playing cards and visiting strip bars with old friends. Ironically, along with taking care of his senile father, Whalen’s protagonist must contend with his own delayed maturity. Craig calls himself “refreshingly immature”; he frequently uses the words “awesome” and “douchey” and is still trying to “soothe the wounds of youth,” which are menial at their most severe. This sometimes makes for funny and depressing miniature lectures on varied topics: the afterlife, Floridians, accounting, genetics, simulated reality, the caliber of the Subaru Outback. The book’s resolution is swift and forced, and Craig himself experiences the greatest solace from a brief encounter with a Hulk Hogan-like former wrestler named Tank Tonnigan and from some dating advice he gets from a TV personality that helps him court a new lady in town. A poignant, funny narrative sometimes disrupted by its own arrested development.
Pub Date: Sept. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-1300249085
Page Count: 244
Publisher: WhaleDog Publishing
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A must-have for history buffs.
The authors (The Commonwealth of Massachusetts Vs. Lizzie A. Borden, 1994) return with a riveting history of the flourishing small town of Fall River, Mass., and its most infamous resident, Lizzie Borden.
It’s been more than eight decades since the death of Lizzie Borden, but interest in the gruesome ax murders that made her famous lives on. This book isn’t intended as a commentary on those murders of August 4, 1892, or speculation about her guilt or innocence; instead, it provides insight into Lizzie Borden, the woman, the city in which she spent most of her life and the society that would later judge her. According to documents, young Lizzie’s implication in her parents’ murders wasn’t based on evidence but merely suggestion and “village gossip.” Varying points of view on the family’s relations—especially between Lizzie and her stepmother—were recorded, but most townspeople distorted the Borden’s evidently normal familial disagreements into a sinister light, spurred on by the macabre events that transpired. The book, culled from exhaustive research by the curators of the Fall River Historical Society, offers an alternate perspective to the previously known particulars. The authors share unprecedented access to never-before-seen documents, memorabilia and other information. The result is an ambitious tome featuring a plethora of information and replete with beautiful photographs. Though the narrative and history are nonlinear, the telling flows seamlessly. The fateful events of August 4, 1892, are discussed early on, but references are peppered throughout, with additional perspective and data. Fall River itself is a compelling character: Its main claim to fame may be Lizzie Borden, but the town—one of the first to open a free library in the United States, in 1860—also persevered through two devastating fires, the Civil War, Lincoln’s assassination and multiple instances of embezzlement. Every page may not be dedicated to the Borden family, but the lush history of the town and its many residents somehow connect to the family and its notorious daughter.
A must-have for history buffs.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2011
ISBN: 978-0964124813
Page Count: 1138
Publisher: Fall River Historical Society
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Sound advice, no matter your age.
A self-help book about staying active as you age.
Prolific writer McHugh (Aging with Grace—Whoever She Is, 2011, etc.) has tackled topics as diverse as veterinary medicine, death and dying, and three mystery novels. Her half-dozen self-help titles deal with aging, a field in which, at 83, she’s highly qualified. In this text, she includes a number of photos of herself; she appears to have benefitted from her list of “10 ways to get more energy.” Her vivacity adds a personal touch to the recommendations she makes for this slender book’s 100 topics, most of which take up a single page and are based on her own experience. Some of the suggestions are dated (“Listen to the Beatles” or Judy Collins); some are luxuriously over-the-top for a person on a fixed income (“Swim with a dolphin” or travel to Greece); and some are creative (“Take a baby to lunch” or ride in a hot air balloon). But the genuine tenderness of her personal comments paired with her lavish imagination makes this book a breezy, lightweight read. It almost doesn’t matter that its premise is demographically flawed: A woman in her 50s, or even early 60s, is most likely still a career woman, without the leisure time to pursue these sometimes extravagant ways of feeling young. The target audience appears to be a married woman with free time and the funds to take advantage of her advice—an empty nester or perhaps a baby boomer—but that woman is probably not in her 50s.
Sound advice, no matter your age.Pub Date: May 11, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475218299
Page Count: 122
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 9, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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