Rather ponderous historical fantasy set in the Aztec empire before the advent of Columbus: from the author of People of the sky (1989). Young slave girl Mixcatl, abducted from her eastern jungle home when a toddler, evinces a rare talent for painting, so the scribes of the ruling Aztec city Tenochtitlan set her to copying ancient texts and glyphs, while also attempting to instill in her the elements of their religion—which involves vast, bloody sacrifices to the warrior-god Hummmingbird on the Left. But Mixcatl suspects herself to be different from other folk: she has preternaturally sharp senses, an ability to animate dead jaguar skins and claws, and a disturbing tendency to change her shape, as if something within her body was attempting to emerge. In the rival but independent city of Tezcotzinco, meanwhile, the gentle Speaker- King, Wise Coyote, desperately searches for a means to retain his independence in the face of the implacably expansionist Tenochtitlan. From the old scribe Nine-Lizard, Wise Coyote learns of the ancient Olmec magicians and their half-jaguar, half-human rulers, and wonder whether Mixcatl is not one such, and whether he can use her to destroy the revolting Hummingbird cult. If, for instance, he could persuade Mixcatl to transform herself into a jaguar in full view of the people, Hummingbird would be discredited. Reasonably rewarding as regards Aztec culture and environment, but thinly plotted and too long by half. Worth a try for historical-fantasy regulars.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-312-09704-2
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Tor
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1993
The first novel in five years from the ever-popular Kingsolver (Pigs in Heaven, 1993, etc.) is a large-scale saga of an American family’s enlightening and disillusioning African adventure. It begins with a stunningly written backward look: Orleanna Price’s embittered memory of the uncompromising zeal that impelled her husband, Baptist missionary Nathan Price, to take her and their four daughters to the (then) Belgian Congo in 1959, and remain there despite dangerous evidence of the country’s instability under Patrice Lumumba’s ill-starred independence movement, Belgian and American interference and condescension, and Joseph Mobutu’s murderous military dictatorship. The bulk of the story, which is set in the superbly realized native village of Kilanga, is narrated in turn by the four Price girls: Leah, the “smart” twin, whose worshipful respect for her father will undergo a rigorous trial by fire; her —retarded” counterpart Adah, disabled and mute (though in the depths of her mind articulate and playfully intelligent); eldest sister Rachel, a self-important whiner given to hilarious malapropisms (“feminine tuition”; “I prefer to remain anomalous”); and youngest sister Ruth May, whose childish fantasies of union with the surrounding, smothering landscape are cruelly fulfilled. Kingsolver skillfully orchestrates her characters— varied responses to Africa into a consistently absorbing narrative that reaches climax after climax—and that, even after you’re sure it must be nearing its end, continues for a wrenching hundred pages or more, spelling out in unforgettable dramatic and lyric terms the fates of the surviving Prices. Little recent fiction has so successfully fused the personal with the political. Better even than Robert Stone in his otherwise brilliant Damascus Gate, Kingsolver convinces us that her characters are, first and foremost, breathing, fallible human beings and only secondarily conduits for her book’s vigorously expressed and argued social and political ideas. A triumph.
Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-06-017540-0
Page Count: 576
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1998
A laugh-out-loud funny book that will delight longtime Kinsella fans and those looking for a cozy holiday story.
Kinsella’s (I Owe You One, 2019, etc.) much-loved Shopaholic is back—and this time, it’s Christmas.
Becky Brandon is looking forward to spending Christmas with her husband and daughter at her parents’ house, just like always. It’s cozy and warm and, other than her favorite Christmas tradition (shopping), Becky doesn’t have to do much of anything. But then her parents drop a huge surprise—they’re moving to an apartment in the superhip London neighborhood of Shoreditch. Now, instead of Christmas sweaters and carols, they’re into unicycles and avocado toast. Her parents’ transformation into hipsters means that Becky has to host Christmas at her home in Letherby. Becky has no idea how to host a holiday dinner for her entire family and extended network of family friends, but she’s never met a problem she couldn’t shop her way out of. As usual, however, Becky finds herself stuck with a ton of problems. First, she needs to find the perfect gift for her husband, Luke, but in order to get it she just might have to petition an all-male billiards club to accept female members (Becky, of course, doesn’t play billiards). She might be in trouble with the entire country of Norway after creating her own (fictional) version of hygge, “sprygge.” Her environmentally conscious sister wants Becky to decorate a broom instead of a Christmas tree and have a vegan turkey on the table. And then there’s her musician ex-boyfriend who unexpectedly shows up in town with his new girlfriend. With everything on Becky’s plate, will she be able to create the picture-perfect Christmas she dreams of? Becky is still a hardworking, eminently lovable character who just wants to do the right thing, even if she usually screws everything up and finds herself in hilariously awful situations (like, for example, storing 30 pounds of smoked salmon on her front lawn under a duvet).
A laugh-out-loud funny book that will delight longtime Kinsella fans and those looking for a cozy holiday story.Pub Date: Oct. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-593-13282-1
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Dial Press
Review Posted Online: Sept. 14, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
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