bookshelf

THROUGH THE WALL OF RAIN AND FOG

Name: THROUGH THE WALL OF RAIN AND FOG
Author: Dan Moore
ISBN: 978-1-935955-18-1

by Dan Moore ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2008

Despite the platitudes, a potentially interesting young author.

bookshelf

A young author begins to find his voice with a debut novel focused on the power of friendship.

Chris Walker is in a rough situation: His mom is a drunk, his older brother has disappeared and his dad died a decade ago, cursing the remaining Walkers to a life of substance abuse in order to cope. Even high-schooler Chris regularly self-medicates, alternating among beer, pot and Oxycontin he lifted from his mom. In fact, the only thing Chris seems to have in his favor is his friends: Dave, Nyle and Jamar. The four inseparable buddies hang out, drink and party whenever possible–normal teenage behavior. It always seemed that one couldn’t function without the other three. But author Moore, an 18-year-old recent high school graduate himself, quickly calls the boys’ bond into question, first through a series of unintentional slights and then through two nearly tragic events that shake the quartet’s belief in each other. First, a car crash caused by Chris in a haze of depression and anger sends three of the boys to the hospital, where, after some bickering, they reconcile with typical teenage melodrama and histrionics. The friends later embark on a road trip to a dilapidated lake house where Chris and Dave face their personal demons, sparking some predictable epiphanies. This is where Moore runs into trouble. While his prose is generally satisfying (particularly considering his age), Moore isn’t always aware he’s walking on a well-worn path–at the beginning of the novel, he treats banalities like great insight. The plot, too, borders on stereotypical–slacker kids resolve to make good. The occasional petty high school bickering, while realistic, is at times an unnecessary diversion. It’s when Moore settles into his characters and their issues that he captures readers, creating such vivid portraits of teenage confusion, anger and chaos that they eclipse any of the novel’s other issues.

Despite the platitudes, a potentially interesting young author.

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-1-935955-18-1

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

bookshelf

BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

bookshelf

THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

bookshelf

Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.