by Clyde Edgerton ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 1, 1995
The first of Edgerton's novels set outside North Carolina: a slim western tale as entertaining and lively as his five previous books (In Memory of Junior, 1992, etc.). Inspired by some real-life episodes in the Mormon settlement of the West, this genial and irreverent narrative relies on Edgerton's familiar technique of allowing his characters to speak for themselves. And although no wisteria vine speaks here (as it did in The Floatplane Notebooks), the author gives one paragraph to the mean and nasty dog of the title—a snarling, evil-eyed mutt that's trained to exact revenge on behalf of its master. Cobb Pittman, a mysterious bounty-hunter, seeks to atone for his participation in the Mountain Meadows Massacre of 1857, in which a group of Mormons under Brigham Young responded violently to federal harassment by slaughtering innocent pioneers. One of the conspirators still lives under an alias in nearby Mumford Rock, Colo., where he hopes to exploit Indian cave dwellings as evidence of a Lost Tribe of Israel. Some archaeologists are also exploring the Mesa Largo dwellings for their pre-Spanish artifacts, but no one wants to support their expedition. The only hope for preserving the site depends on the never-ending entrepreneurial instincts of Billy Blankenship, a true gilded-age huckster who sees great tourist potential in them thar hills. Blankenship's get-rich schemes, which involve a number of the main characters here, provide the low-humorous high jinks typical of Edgerton's fiction. The trial tourist outing—later known as the Eagle City Shootout of 1892—ends in some bloodshed and plans for a Wild West Show. The simple moral (``careless passion and wrong were caught in the jaws of defeat, right prevailed'') is in keeping with the amiable tone of this spirited historical re-creation. (Author tour)
Pub Date: April 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-56512-060-4
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995
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BOOK REVIEW
by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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