Passionate social concern distinguishes this otherwise undistinguished novel by the author of Leaving the Land (1984), The Turkey War (1988), and El Yanqui (1986). The latter had began the story of Diego, an American exchange student whose life with his host family in Buenos Aires during the 1960s comprised an education in the harsh realities of Latin American power politics. Unger's sequel returns Diego, now a journalist and newly married, to the Beneventos, who still grieve for their dead and ``disappeared'' sons, victims of the military government that tortured and murdered thousands of innocent citizens during Argentina's ``dirty war'' of 197683. Now, almost a decade later, Argentina has ``decided to put on trial its former government for human rights abuses.'' As Pap† Benevento steels himself to testify, Diego encounters several people who knew the family's sons, and each has a story to tell. Wherein lies the problem: Information is conveyed through conversations, and characters talk to, and at, one another incessantly (for example, enjoyment of a pleasant meal inspires a lead-footed discussion of the Argentine economy). Fitful attempts at drama include Diego's confused relationship with his culture-shocked wife and ominous indications that those scheduled to give testimony against the defendants are indeed in danger. The details of arrest and torture are inevitably compelling, but they're swallowed up in a torrent of generalization. Only near the story's conclusion do narrative and commentary fuse effectively, creating a sense of urgency otherwise lacking: Pap† Benevento's day in court makes for a powerful climax, and the decision of Argentina's ``new democracy'' to pardon the indicted officers in the interests of healing the nation's wounds vibrates with bitter irony. The Beneventos pay the price for their courage and decency, and Diego returns to America ruefully aware that ``we were the lucky ones. We were Americans.'' As an act of witness and accusation, Unger's fourth book is altogether admirable; as a novel, it's a disheartening failure.
Pub Date: Aug. 11, 1995
ISBN: 0-312-13204-2
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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