by David Norton Stone ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2012
JAG fans and courtroom-drama enthusiasts will find enough of interest.
In Stone’s novel, World War I–era English poet Rupert Brooke has a startling influence on four students at the Navy Officer Candidate School in Newport, R.I.
At Navy OCS, James Drayton, an admiral’s son, forms a secret society, the Great Lovers, named after one of Brooke’s better-known poems. Drayton intends to reform the Navy, doing away with the elements he most despises at school, including hazing and cheating, though it isn’t clear why he chooses the other members, except for Tate, his roommate; the others seem unexceptional. They leave school after being posted to their respective areas of service, only to be brought back together when Drayton, an intelligence officer on an aircraft carrier dispatched near Taiwan to protect the integrity of an election, dies under mysterious circumstances—an explosion on the aircraft carrier killed five people. After the identities of the other Great Lovers are revealed, the four are court martialed as part of Drayton’s apparent mutiny; secret societies are forbidden in the Navy, and someone needs to be blamed for the tragedy. Defended by attorney Raoul Thomas, himself the subject of a court martial in his youth, the remaining Great Lovers are in a fight for their professional lives. Stone, also a graduate of Navy OCS, has an interesting story to tell, though the inclusion of naval terminology could have been handled less awkwardly. It’s a shame, too, that more of Brooke’s poetry isn’t included, other than a few bits of his biography offered by Drayton. Readers may wonder why the poet left such a big impression on the Great Lovers. While Drayton and his roommate are well-crafted characters, the two women are difficult to distinguish. Meanwhile, the book is something of a tribute to the end of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” and Drayton’s attraction to heterosexual Tate is handled with sensitivity. However, the courtroom scenes are the book’s strong suit, although the surprise ending is weak. There are few dramatic twists or revelations, and readers never really learn exactly what was on Drayton’s mind when he died. His disappearance from the second half of the book, except as a discussion point, weakens the narrative power.
JAG fans and courtroom-drama enthusiasts will find enough of interest.Pub Date: April 12, 2012
ISBN: 978-0985493912
Page Count: 104
Publisher: Fry Pots Publishing
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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