Should a Venezuelan mountain be stripped of its rich lode of iron ore by the powerful Proteus corporation, or set aside as an archaeological site? The struggle erupts into a boardroom battle for control of Proteus—and then into primitive conflict in the Venezuelan jungle highly reminiscent of Pollock's Lair of the Fox (1989). Proteus chairman and CEO Sam Warrender goes charging down to Cerro Calvario, determined to stop Professor Arquimedeo Laya L¢pez from digging up any more ``broken pottery'' on the mountain, or at least to cut off Proteus funding for the dig. Entranced by an ancient flute excavated under his eyes, Sam abruptly changes his mind, though not the minds of Proteus's bottom-line crew, headed by company president D.W. Lee. Nor is D.W. swayed by his daughter Jacqueline, a budding filmmaker who joins Sam in siding with the dig—and would obviously like to join him in closer quarters too. But Arqui's treacherous assistant FÇlix Rosales sells him out by insisting to the press that the flute was found elsewhere, a story the Venezuelan government (engorged with a recent transfusion of Proteus cash from D.W.) is only too eager to buy. Standing up for Arqui at a posh reception aboard D.W.'s yacht Kallisto, Sam is discredited by too many drinks and a too-helpful blonde; on his return stateside, the Proteus board dumps him in favor of D.W. But then FÇlix's uncle, an aging loose-cannon revolutionary, starts bombing Proteus sea traffic, including the Kallisto, and kidnaps Jacqueline, setting the stage for Sam and D.W. to bury the hatchet and team up with a pair of handpicked locals to rescue her and resolve the underlying cultural conflicts in some ways you could never imagine. John Wayne as grizzled multinational CEO, with a disconcertingly young partner as spunky and ineffectual as Maureen O'Hara. The rest of this vigorous, overslung saga is just windowdressing.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-671-70575-X
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
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
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
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