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THE THIRD EYE

Name: THE THIRD EYE
Author: David Knowles
ISBN: 0-385-49706-7

by David Knowles ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 1, 2000

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Further refining his distinctive approach to seductive storytelling, Knowles (the novella The Secrets of the Camera Obscura, 1994) digs deep into the head of a Peeping Tom, who finds his peeping perturbed and reason rattled by a woman who seems to know him better than he knows himself. This is no ordinary Tom, however'no, this is a Manhattan-variety voyeur who calls himself Jefferson, a real-estate scion with enough money to buy a building in Soho just to board up the windows facing the prize apartment he sublets cheaply to beautiful young women for a few months. In one of the boarded-up windows is a hole, behind which is a camera, behind which is our man. Taking pictures of his tenants in various states is how Jefferson treats his agoraphobia, a case so severe he can’t hang out in Central Park, let alone leave the city. But his photographs are too good to keep to himself, so he lets his friend Henry, a struggling artist fresh from Indiana, have a peek. Henry is hooked, and with ample encouragement begins to paint versions of the photos. This cozy arrangement unravels, though, when Jefferson’s latest ad brings him Maya, a woman from India, complete with a red dot on her forehead, who is so captivating he forgets all the rules of his game. She gets the apartment, but promptly disappears, leaving Jefferson increasingly frustrated, then worried when he learns Henry is having a show of his photo-paintings at a gallery whose owner Maya knows. As Jefferson frets, he completely loses his grip, although after his meltdown his agoraphobia is gone. Diverse stages of mental distress, described from within this unsavory character, are handled with artful reserve, but the existential mystery of Maya remains just that, with the explanations about her sounding, to echo Henry’s words, like “a big pile of psychic crap.”

Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-385-49706-7

Page Count: -

Publisher: Nan A. Talese

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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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...

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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

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THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

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THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

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THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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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.

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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.