Sailing, seduction, and family secrets over three generations of women keep things lively for the most part in ex-priest Montague's hefty first novel, but they fall short of providing an unqualified success. Young art teacher Matthew moves to Marblehead, Mass., looking for adventure, but is quickly in over his head when he stumbles on a wrecked wooden sailboat in a garage. It isn't for sale, but Matthew attempts to sweet-talk Taylor, its owner, and begins to research the boat's history, which, it turns out, is complex, mysterious, and romantic. Taylor tells him what she knows of the boat's unusual past: Her mother Becky sailed it from the onset of WW II until she went out in a storm in 1972 and never came back— the boat was found wrecked on the rocks at the mouth of the harbor. With missing pieces of the family saga supplied by Becky's closest friend, Taylor and Matthew learn of Becky's marriage to a flyboy who volunteered to serve in the RAF, then, in his absence, of her attraction to an Episcopalian priest-to-be, with whom she sailed frequently. Ousted from Marblehead as too ardent a supporter of Jewish refugees, the future priest goes to the Pacific as a military chaplain, leaving Becky the boat but not knowing he's left her pregnant as well. He is captured and reported dead, while Becky's husband dies in action; she's left with a child whom she passes off as legitimate, never telling her daughter about her real father. But father and daughter's paths cross when Taylor, as a young woman, goes to live in Japan. That contact, along with all the other information Matthew and Taylor assemble, allows the pair finally to figure out how the boat came to be wrecked. Some heat but not much sizzle, along with a few nagging loose ends. Even so, an artful, pleasant read, tailor-made for the beach, where surf and salt air can provide complementary distractions.
Pub Date: July 15, 1997
ISBN: 0-525-94303-X
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1997
Steinbeck's peculiarly intense simplicity of technique is admirably displayed in this vignette — a simple, tragic tale of Mexican little people, a story retold by the pearl divers of a fishing hamlet until it has the quality of folk legend. A young couple content with the humble living allowed them by the syndicate which controls the sale of the mediocre pearls ordinarily found, find their happiness shattered when their baby boy is stung by a scorpion. They dare brave the terrors of a foreign doctor, only to be turned away when all they can offer in payment is spurned. Then comes the miracle. Kino find a great pearl. The future looks bright again. The baby is responding to the treatment his mother had given. But with the pearl, evil enters the hearts of men:- ambition beyond his station emboldens Kino to turn down the price offered by the dealers- he determines to go to the capital for a better market; the doctor, hearing of the pearl, plants the seed of doubt and superstition, endangering the child's life, so that he may get his rake-off; the neighbors and the strangers turn against Kino, burn his hut, ransack his premises, attack him in the dark — and when he kills, in defense, trail him to the mountain hiding place- and kill the child. Then- and then only- does he concede defeat. In sorrow and humility, he returns with his Juana to the ways of his people; the pearl is thrown into the sea.... A parable, this, with no attempt to add to its simple pattern.
Pub Date: Nov. 24, 1947
ISBN: 0140187383
Page Count: 132
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1947
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.
A very funny novel about the survivor of a childhood trauma.
At 29, Eleanor Oliphant has built an utterly solitary life that almost works. During the week, she toils in an office—don’t inquire further; in almost eight years no one has—and from Friday to Monday she makes the time go by with pizza and booze. Enlivening this spare existence is a constant inner monologue that is cranky, hilarious, deadpan, and irresistible. Eleanor Oliphant has something to say about everything. Riding the train, she comments on the automated announcements: “I wondered at whom these pearls of wisdom were aimed; some passing extraterrestrial, perhaps, or a yak herder from Ulan Bator who had trekked across the steppes, sailed the North Sea, and found himself on the Glasgow-Edinburgh service with literally no prior experience of mechanized transport to call upon.” Eleanor herself might as well be from Ulan Bator—she’s never had a manicure or a haircut, worn high heels, had anyone visit her apartment, or even had a friend. After a mysterious event in her childhood that left half her face badly scarred, she was raised in foster care, spent her college years in an abusive relationship, and is now, as the title states, perfectly fine. Her extreme social awkwardness has made her the butt of nasty jokes among her colleagues, which don’t seem to bother her much, though one notices she is stockpiling painkillers and becoming increasingly obsessed with an unrealistic crush on a local musician. Eleanor’s life begins to change when Raymond, a goofy guy from the IT department, takes her for a potential friend, not a freak of nature. As if he were luring a feral animal from its hiding place with a bit of cheese, he gradually brings Eleanor out of her shell. Then it turns out that shell was serving a purpose.
Honeyman’s endearing debut is part comic novel, part emotional thriller, and part love story.Pub Date: May 9, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2068-3
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Pamela Dorman/Viking
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
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