A sincere, if at times rambling, re-creation of a spiritual “talking cure” via social media.
A comedian shares the Facebook conversations he had with a casual acquaintance after she contacted him about her impending divorce.
Shoemaker, a Los Angeles–based comedian known for his baritone-voiced character The Lovemaster, received a private Facebook message from Leah De Luca, whom he’d met a handful of times when she and her husband, Matt, attended his comedy shows in Philadelphia, his hometown. Leah wanted Shoemaker to know that she and Matt were divorcing after 30 years of marriage, that “from what I see from your life on Facebook, you seem like a compassionate man.” Upon reading this, Shoemaker—happily remarried but still struggling with his own divorce—replied to Leah, and a flurry of messages began. Shoemaker related the pain of his ex’s false accusations of child molestation as well as his own bleak childhood, which included actual molestation and “absent, unstable and baffling parents.” Leah touched on Matt’s emotional abuse during their marriage yet also the sadness she felt when he cut off communication during divorce proceedings. They also discussed the natures of forgiveness and acceptance and of taking responsibility for one’s own life. After about a year of such dialogue, Leah found new love, thanks to Shoemaker’s help, and both moved on to new phases of life. In his foreword, Shoemaker acknowledges that while there “may be fabrications” within his narrative—largely set up like an epistolary novel that replicates the Facebook messages—this is “irrelevant because it is all rooted in universal truth.” Indeed, the encouragement and advice to be mined from these missives may be helpful to anyone dealing with divorce or any other life crisis. While Shoemaker’s support of Leah was admirable, his own effusive, sometimes digressive self-expressions also dominated the text. In fact, the narrative could have used a bit more “mastering” of its own to further refine and develop the rather touching story of a friendship forged on Facebook.
A sincere, if at times rambling, re-creation of a spiritual “talking cure” via social media.Pub Date: June 20, 2014
ISBN: 978-1460244586
Page Count: 248
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 10, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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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