A laudable depiction of life within civil unrest and a proficient setup for the trilogy’s conclusion.
In this sequel, wedded bliss for an engaged couple on San Cristobal may be wrecked by a revolutionary group with aspirations of taking over the island.
Former New York executive-turned-philanthropist Robbie Beaufort has a new life in the Caribbean with his fiancee, Julianna Miranda. But lately the couple have been distant with each another. Julianna’s legally married to Pedro, comatose, and on a gastrostomy tube from an injury rendered during a hurricane. Robbie doesn’t want a wedding with Pedro still in the picture but he has qualms about taking him off the feeding tube, unsure whether the man would suffer. This postpones both the marriage and the big house Robbie promised, sparking rancor from Julianna and her young daughter, Alba, who hates admitting to her private academy friends that she lives in the slum. Things take a turn for the better when Julianna believes she’s pregnant with the couple’s first child. But trouble is also close by, evidenced by recurring black flags. Robbie doesn’t initially put much credence in rumors that the flags belong to the Sandinas, South American revolutionaries. Unfortunately, the group sees Robbie as a threat, with his charity work appeasing slum residents and reducing the number of recruits in a potential revolt. Carroll (Slum, 2016, etc.) aptly establishes the slum: it’s imperfect but populated by good people, while the Black Hell is the undeveloped and precarious section to avoid. Much of the plot (perhaps too much) focuses on Robbie obsessed with Pedro’s predicament, even flying in an expert to verify the patient won’t feel anything if doctors pull the feeding tube. The Sandinas, however, are a slowly building menace: short, intermittent perspectives from the group preface a more aggressive strike that leaves death and destruction in its wake. There are few signs of tangible romance between often bickering Robbie and Julianna. But it’s a struggle both realistic and endearing, as they’re fighting to keep everyone in their family together and safe.
A laudable depiction of life within civil unrest and a proficient setup for the trilogy’s conclusion.Pub Date: April 6, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-300-88798-0
Page Count: 342
Publisher: Vanity Press
Review Posted Online: May 31, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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