In this dark and bizarre satire, Dumanis proposes a world in which hyperreligious fervor shields and empowers the truly...
The future Big Split between the Northern and Southern United States leads to religious demagogy and the right-wing political delirium that provides the backdrop for Dumanis’ novel.
Never really wanted by her mother and sexually abused by her father, Mona Liebowitz wants to create an art project that spans the nation, a futile dream in the New American Republic, where art has been decried as a distraction from God and subsequently banned. Painting lands Mona in juvenile hall. In an attempt to assert herself, she composes a mural under the cover of night and gets locked in solitary confinement. While imprisoned, she is granted a wish by a magical “wee person” who ends the conversation by shooting off into oblivion. Then things get weird. Through plot-driven mayhem, Mona finds herself on the lam, disfigured and starting a religion before she meets her ultimate fate. Throughout the book, Dumanis’ strong satirical voice blasts the hypocrisy of those who don’t practice what they preach. Evil deeds, such as Mona being locked in boxlike confines and later being assaulted, all occur at the hands of the self-assured authoritarians, while images of Jesus look on. If the plot and dialogue weren’t enough to grasp the author’s intentions, there are the lists and lists of hybridized nouns: Girl Scouts have become God Scouts. An amusement park is called Godland (complete with David and Goliath fights on the hour and a ride named The Slide to Hell). Then you’ve got your Freedom objects: Freedom Net, Freedom Phone and the satisfyingly oxymoronic Freedom Locks. Although the author’s points are made clearly, they lack the subtle delivery that could send the reader on an actual journey. Instead, hyperbole and breakneck pace reign while the plot vacillates from amusing to sickening and then abruptly ends.
In this dark and bizarre satire, Dumanis proposes a world in which hyperreligious fervor shields and empowers the truly demented while destroying individualism and artistic expression.Pub Date: July 26, 2012
ISBN: 978-0615644486
Page Count: 128
Publisher: Slavin, Joseph and Sons
Review Posted Online: Oct. 10, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A simple ABC book whose vibrant photographs will grab kids’ attention.
Debut authors Pi and Pi offer a debut picture-book alphabet of occupations, featuring photos of children playing dress-up.
Each of the 26 pages of this book features a photo, with illustrated details, of a child in the midst of a game of dress-up and imagination. The first shows a cheerful girl, costumed as a doctor, imagining, “What can I be today?” For “A,” a young artist paints on an easel; then, in a transition sentence, she decides to do ballet. The next page shows a ballerina who, when she gets hungry, visits a chef—and so on. Most transitions make sense, and the photos of children with occupation props, set against mostly white backgrounds, offer plenty of smiles. The simple sentences make this book easy to read aloud to its early childhood target audience. However, a few job titles may be a stretch for them to understand, such as “geologist,” “horticulturalist,” and “optician.” The jobs are varied and include artistic positions (illustrator, knitter, musician), service professions (firefighter, judge, librarian, soldier), and science jobs (engineer, X-ray technician). Surprisingly, the only sports-related position is an umpire, but a leading question at the end, about other jobs that one may discover, leaves room for young listeners to create their own.
A simple ABC book whose vibrant photographs will grab kids’ attention.Pub Date: Dec. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-4808-5453-6
Page Count: 32
Publisher: Archway Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Poems and images that ask readers to appreciate a searching body for its beauty and grace.
Diehl’s debut poetry collection showcases the arduous search for human connection and self-understanding.
In free verse poems that combine strong metaphors with prosaic passages, the poet wanders along a lifelong path of self-knowledge. She first describes it as a “pilgrimage…to accept what’s been deemed unworthy inside us,” and the trail leads to important insights. In a plainly stated yet necessary reminder, the author asserts that being human, despite the loneliness one may encounter, “is not a solitary pursuit.” Above all else, the book voices a desire for transparency in the self and in others. In “Clear Stream,” moving water illuminates objects within it, even as mystery waits at the bottom, and the water’s clarity corresponds to the speaker’s offering of his- or herself to view: “Here I am. // Come see me if you want.” Sometimes the tumble of words in these short stanzas suggests a pouring forth of injury: “It’s the show-stopping blow of loss upending a heart pain over pain till capacity for love regulates its beating.” Readers will understand a back story involving love and loss, difficulty in communication, sadness, and acceptance of children growing up. The poems gain strength from well-chosen accompanying images, including sketches and paintings by Dimenichi and colorful works by Jamaican-born painter Powell that enrich the verbal landscape. Several full-page images by each artist appear, suggesting a thematic connection or amplifying an emotion in a given poem. A richly textured, grand illustration of a tree by Dimenichi, for example, appears alongside a poem that celebrates the inspiration of such towering entities. A poem concerned with self-reflection joins a Powell painting of floating, twinned female forms. The figures seem to both depict and satisfy the speaker’s need to be seen, with their emphasis on mirror images, body doubles, and echoes of shapes. Even the windshield of a car can be a “two way mirror” behind which the driver is “invisible to life outside.” An explicitly female body is glimpsed in the sketches, and the warm, dreamlike compositions give it substance.
Poems and images that ask readers to appreciate a searching body for its beauty and grace.Pub Date: July 1, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-304-13091-4
Page Count: 58
Publisher: Lulu
Review Posted Online: May 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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