Boo-hoos on every page.
Another schmaltzy holiday tearjerker from Van Liere (The Christmas Blessing, 2003, etc.) brings children back into the life of a hardened social worker whose teenaged son died in a car accident.
The author spares no narrative ploy in pulling her readers’ heartstrings. Days before Christmas, in the falling snow, as Mel Torme sings “The Christmas Song,” 43-year-old Patricia Addison is shuttling yet another unwanted child to foster parents, all the while resenting the holiday hoopla. The death of 18-year-old Sean four years earlier has placed a splinter of ice between Patricia and husband Mark, an airline pilot who has his bags packed to leave her. The product of a family broken apart when her own father vanished from the house, she has no intention of stopping him. Patricia’s current cases involve two-year-old Mia, who needs a home because her mother is in rehab; and five-year-old Emily, whose mother perishes in a car accident. When Emily’s current caretakers have to attend to an emergency over Christmas, Patricia steps in and brings the girl to her own home, against all the rules of social work. Still, Mark warms to her instantly, Patricia’s co-worker Roy, a kind of “jolly black Santa,” appears with a tree for the house, and soon there seem to be many good reasons to keep the child. Mia, meanwhile, needs hospitalization for a flawed heart. Who happens to be Mia’s surgeon? The doctor who tried to save Sean four years before. Moreover, Sean left a present for his mother, along with a heartfelt note, which Dr. Nathan Andrews only just now recalls pocketing. No problem: He’ll slip it to the happily reconciled parents as a secret Santa gift. Even old Norma Holt, who has been decorating the town tree since before anyone can remember, is laid up this year with pneumonia.
Boo-hoos on every page.Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2005
ISBN: 0-312-33450-8
Page Count: 240
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2005
This first novel, ostensibly about the friendship between two boys, Reuven and Danny, from the time when they are fourteen on opposing yeshiva ball clubs, is actually a gently didactic differentiation between two aspects of the Jewish faith, the Hasidic and the Orthodox. Primarily the Hasidic, the little known mystics with their beards, earlocks and stringently reclusive way of life. According to Reuven's father who is a Zionist, an activist, they are fanatics; according to Danny's, other Jews are apostates and Zionists "goyim." The schisms here are reflected through discussions, between fathers and sons, and through the separation imposed on the two boys for two years which still does not affect their lasting friendship or enduring hopes: Danny goes on to become a psychiatrist refusing his inherited position of "tzaddik"; Reuven a rabbi.... The explanation, in fact exegesis, of Jewish culture and learning, of the special dedication of the Hasidic with its emphasis on mind and soul, is done in sufficiently facile form to engage one's interest and sentiment. The publishers however see a much wider audience for The Chosen. If they "rub their tzitzis for good luck,"—perhaps—although we doubt it.
Pub Date: April 28, 1967
ISBN: 0449911543
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: April 6, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1967
Hoffman (The Red Garden, 2011, etc.) births literature from tragedy: the destruction of Jerusalem's Temple, the siege of Masada and the loss of Zion.
This is a feminist tale, a story of strong, intelligent women wedded to destiny by love and sacrifice. Told in four parts, the first comes from Yael, daughter of Yosef bar Elhanan, a Sicarii Zealot assassin, rejected by her father because of her mother's death in childbirth. It is 70 CE, and the Temple is destroyed. Yael, her father, and another Sicarii assassin, Jachim ben Simon, and his family flee Jerusalem. Hoffman's research renders the ancient world real as the group treks into Judea's desert, where they encounter Essenes, search for sustenance and burn under the sun. There too Jachim and Yael begin a tragic love affair. At Masada, Yael is sent to work in the dovecote, gathering eggs and fertilizer. She meets Shirah, her daughters, and Revka, who narrates part two. Revka's husband was killed when Romans sacked their village. Later, her daughter was murdered. At Masada, caring for grandsons turned mute by tragedy, Revka worries over her scholarly son-in-law, Yoav, now consumed by vengeance. Aziza, daughter of Shirah, carries the story onward. Born out of wedlock, Aziza grew up in Moab, among the people of the blue tunic. Her passion and curse is that she was raised as a warrior by her foster father. In part four, Shirah tells of her Alexandrian youth, the cherished daughter of a consort of the high priests. Shirah is a keshaphim, a woman of amulets, spells and medicine, and a woman connected to Shechinah, the feminine aspect of God. The women are irretrievably bound to Eleazar ben Ya'ir, Masada's charismatic leader; Amram, Yael's brother; and Yoav, Aziza's companion and protector in battle. The plot is intriguingly complex, with only a single element unresolved. An enthralling tale rendered with consummate literary skill.
Pub Date: Oct. 4, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4516-1747-4
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: April 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2011
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