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HEAVEN SENT

Name: HEAVEN SENT
Author: Donald J. Mack
ISBN: 978-1494963996

by Donald J. Mack ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 18, 2014

A disorienting but sometimes-interesting hybrid of fiction and nonfiction.

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Two American servicemen arrive at a unique solution to help unite North and South Korea in Mack’s (Not Yet? Another Mission, 2011) sophomore book.

Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, communist North Korea and democratic South Korea have stared at each other with weapons ready across a two-mile stretch of no man’s land known as the Demilitarized Zone. In this book, Mack mixes fiction, fact, opinion and his own personal experiences as he lays out a scheme to bring the two countries together. Two American Army officers, Jeremy and Casey, are assigned the seemingly impossible mission of pushing the intractable foes toward reunification. The servicemen know that it will require them to think outside the box, and so they devise a plan that relies on women, music and sports as catalysts. Mack, a retired U.S. Army colonel, spent extensive time serving throughout Asia, and his experience shows in his encyclopedic knowledge of Korea, its people, its history, its customs and even its food. However, the novel itself doesn’t start until more than halfway into the book; the first 78 pages are filled with Mack’s comments and opinions on a variety of subjects, including global warming, crime, China, al-Qaida and mandatory military service. Even after the fictional portion of the book begins, the author continues to offer observations on various topics; he sometimes suspends the story for pages at a time to do so, in the same rapid-fire paragraph style he uses in the book’s first section. The effect, however, is confusing, as the interruptions make it difficult to follow the storyline. Overall, this isn’t a novel in the traditional sense—there’s minimal dialogue, no character arcs and little narrative flow—but an uneven personal recollection colored by opinion and fictional elements.

A disorienting but sometimes-interesting hybrid of fiction and nonfiction.

Pub Date: March 18, 2014

ISBN: 978-1494963996

Page Count: 142

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Jan. 2, 2015

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

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.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).