A first novel by storywriter Pierce (When Things Get Back to Normal, 1987) travels the same Carolinian terrain as the much more elegant work of Kaye Gibbons; thematically, it bears a lot in common with Robert Clark's novel, In the Deep Midwinter (1996), which also culminates in an illegal abortion during the Eisenhower years. By comparison, though, Pierce's relentlessly drab fiction drags. Until the startlingly upbeat conclusion, the author paints a rather depressing portrait of Hope Mills, N.C., as a class- stratified, oppressive mill town, with little room for social mobility, an innate prejudice toward blacks and foreigners, and a patriarchal attitude concerning women. The double standard figures prominently in the story, with horny men constantly on the prowl, and girls doomed to succumb to their blandishments. Tollie Ramsey, 15 and confused, hopes to escape the dead-end of ``mill rat'' life, but everything seems stacked against her. She discovers her illegitimacy; she gets knocked up by a Puerto Rican soldier from the local base; her stepfather becomes an alcoholic; and her mother is apparently determined to kill herself. Janice Ramsey, herself a woman who once dreamed of better things, not only settled for the first man who would be a daddy to her little girl, but she escaped Milltown only to return after her infant son died of crib death. Tollie's simple dreams of ``home-cooked food [and] an easy home life'' contrast with those of her best friend, Lily Jones, a sassy girl who hopes that by sleeping with a local d.j. she might eventually conquer Hollywood. Tollie finally seeks out the local voodoo-abortionist, an exceedingly wise black man who serves as her advisor and confessor. Perhaps, Tollie muses, life was just about ``plain old sin and redemption.'' Though Pierce isn't quite sure. It's hard not to think of Gibbons's suggestive, economic style and her subtle feminism when slogging through Pierce's relatively artless complaints against small-town life in another era.
Pub Date: April 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-916366-82-0
Page Count: 311
Publisher: Pushcart
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1997
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
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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