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A JOURNAL OF THE FLOOD YEAR

Name: A JOURNAL OF THE FLOOD YEAR
Author: David Ely
ISBN: 1-55611-272-6

by David Ely ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 27, 1992

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A bleak futuristic saga combining primal urges with an abhorrence of any human touch—from Ely (Always Home, p. 485, etc.), who situates a desperate love story in an America where technology has long since reached its terrifying zenith and decay has set in with catastrophic consequences. A conscientious public servant in a time when blind obedience to the powers that be is the rule, Engineer William G. Fowke discovers disturbing evidence of seepage in his sector of the Wall- -an aging monument to human achievement built along the entire East Coast to create arable land by forcing back the sea. His urgent reports incur increasing animosity from his superiors as he's shadowed by robots, hounded by security forces, and finally arrested when he goes too far. He and the agent who brings him in fall in love, however, having developed a bond of common sensuality in a previous chance liaison (accomplished, through the wonders of technology, without direct contact), and she helps him when he is recaptured after escaping from prison. Unfortunately, Fowke has a knack for alienating himself both from those already excluded from society and others who, like him, have proved an embarrassment and a threat, which forces him to rely solely on his own devices, and he has to kill in order to regain entry into his former life. He finds then that the worst has happened—that his beloved Wall has been breached and that the sea has returned with a vengeance—but reunion with Julia leaves some hope for a new beginning. Somewhat schematic and episodic, with a too-naive protagonist, but still an inventive cautionary tale in which the vivid technological features are unsettling in their plausibility.

Pub Date: Jan. 27, 1992

ISBN: 1-55611-272-6

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Donald Fine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1991

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.