Despite mildly pedantic angelic dialogues, the realistic view of Palestinian difficulties and the vision offered here of a...
A curious fantasy, inspired by Leigh Hunt’s famous 1834 poem, “Abou Ben Adhem,” mingles metaphysics and grim reality: a gentle Arab grandfather living in Gaza is visited nightly by an angel who offers advice and consolation as the man’s life is turned upside down by a tragic series of events.
Ensconced in his son-in-law Yasser’s orchard in his father’s goat-herding tent, Abou is content to watch his grandchildren grow, and to get together for lunch with his village cronies, willing to forget that he was once visited by an angel who proclaimed him the best of men. But another angel comes to call, Cohen, and after a rocky start they begin a series of wide-ranging conversations every time Abou falls asleep. Cohen has brought word that Abou is no longer at the top of the list of good men (replaced by Jimmy Carter), and Abou wants to regain his place. Faced with mean-spirited Yasser’s effort to move him out, Abou sets up his tent behind a friend’s bank, there establishing a kind of living museum where school kids can come to learn about the goat-herding ways of their people. When Yasser starts beating his wife and spreading vile rumors about Abou, however, additional measures are called for: learning that Yasser’s business is failing and that he’s about to lose his house in a tax foreclosure, Abou pays the taxes and takes the house, moving in with his daughter and the children while putting Yasser on the street. The museum, now sponsored by Hamas, allows Abou to continue instructing children, including his earnest young grandson, but the involvement of Hamas leads to treachery and a loss so severe that the angel Cohen must take unparalleled action.
Despite mildly pedantic angelic dialogues, the realistic view of Palestinian difficulties and the vision offered here of a better life are a welcome addition to the never-ending debate on the Middle East.Pub Date: March 1, 2002
ISBN: 1-882593-51-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Bridge Works
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2001
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 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.
bookshelf
