Inconsistent verse that nonetheless shows real growth.
A "year's worth" of intensely personal poetic reflection.
Fredette reflects on his life over the course of a year that is by turns harrowing and hopeful in verse presented in almost diary-like form. The author signs and dates the poems, which are arranged chronologically. Hence, the reader can chart not only Fredette's mental and emotional development over a year, but his poetic progress as well. While poems that appear earlier in the year are often vague and amateurish, his later entries show marked improvement. The former are often too brief, boasting trite, short and disappointing titles like "Leap," "Stand By" and "Relief." It is exceedingly difficult to identify the topics of these early poems, and Fredette uses language that is general and often imprecise. Sometimes the writing is so abstract that it borders on nonsensical–such as the almost completely obscure poems "Not Likely" and "Tendency." The author is also sporadically interested in rhyme but seemingly less concerned with rhythm. Line lengths vary wildly and matching words are lost in the twists and turns of an arbitrary meter. Further, too many rhymes are unnatural or grating. In "Cycle," he forces together "mostly" and "coasting"; in "Two Weeks Notice," he rhymes "complaint" with "way"; in "Finger Split," he puts together "handkerchief" and "drip." However, as the book progresses, Fredette refines the verse and rids his poetry of some of these bad habits. Eight months into the collection, he writes the beautiful, lyric poem "Easter," which features from its first stanza the most stunning image of the brief volume, its intellectual fabric containing concise reflection on the nature of religious belief. It only improves from there; Fredette's last poems are full of sharper portraits, clearer diction and more moving language.
Inconsistent verse that nonetheless shows real growth.Pub Date: Oct. 31, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4257-7880-4
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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