by Dennis Nehamen ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 9, 2013
A passionate and challenging but unevenly executed mix of art forms.
A hip-hop hybrid of music and prose that tells an implausible love story.
Benny Wright is a journeyman musician who has everything a man could ever want—except a record deal. He has a sexy, adoring wife, two preternaturally talented children, a more-than-serviceable home and a tolerable 9-to-5 job that pays the bills. But when Benny’s last best shot at the big time suddenly vanishes, he believes that he’s a loser and that he must leave his cherished family so that its members may find someone more worthy of their affection. He realizes that simply buying a bus ticket to another town won’t be enough to erase his place in their hearts, so he embarks on a harebrained scheme to make his family despise him. Eighteen original songs strategically embedded into the narrative bring emotional depth to what might otherwise be a wooden, preposterous plot. Readers may find the songs somewhat reminiscent of those in R. Kelly’s Trapped in the Closet, as they alternately shift from Benny to his family members, giving voice to each character’s plaintive point of view. The story’s secondary characters don’t fare as well, however; for example, a saucy vixen named Cookie whom Benny shamelessly uses to emotionally torture his wife comes off as a two-dimensional construct, and an enigmatic barstool sage who attempts to steer Benny away from the rocks never quite comes to life. Benny’s nemesis and agent Garland may be the most contrived character of all, as he serves the dual functions of torpedoing Benny’s musical dreams and moving in on his loyal wife.
A passionate and challenging but unevenly executed mix of art forms.Pub Date: May 9, 2013
ISBN: 978-0989057202
Page Count: 356
Publisher: Musical Novels Press
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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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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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