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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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