From a complicated business deal to a teenager’s first kiss, Schwarzschild works with the quiet authority of a master. This...
Life gets complicated for a con man with a conscience in a thrilling first novel that’s family drama with a strong suspense element.
Max Wolinsky is back in Philadelphia for his son Nathan’s bar mitzvah. It’s been a year since Max took off for Florida, after wife Sandy left him for the gardener. Max is staying with his father, Caleb, and his uncle Abe, a stroke victim. Both brothers used to be textiles salesmen, and Max, a college dropout, had joined them for a while before crossing the line into small scams; right now, he’s about to sell some nonexistent real estate to a prosperous Philly couple, the Goulds. Max has his rules: Don’t hurt anybody physically; don’t leave anyone destitute. Unfortunately, he knows people who are less scrupulous. Johnny Sklarman, a messed-up former college buddy, and his thuggish associate Dexter want a piece of the action. Then there’s Spiller, a businessman who’s also the scoutmaster at Nathan’s temple. Spiller has a big project cooking, evidently legit, and Johnny and Dexter are sniffing around that, too. Meanwhile, Max, a fast worker, has started dating an attractive local woman, Estelle. Schwarzschild keeps the story moving while deepening his family portrait. Family members protect each other with kindnesses large and small, forming a lifeline to the next generation. There’s the original Wolinsky, from Odessa, who battled thugs himself; there’s the brace of salesmen, Abe dreaming big, Caleb more “old school,” going by the book. Now Nathan, after his bar mitzvah, is a “responsible man” too, grilling his father in a scene so raw it hurts. For Max is at the center, tempted by easy money but willing to start over. His soul hangs in the balance through turns of plot and bare-knuckled violence, internal and external dramas both packing a wallop.
From a complicated business deal to a teenager’s first kiss, Schwarzschild works with the quiet authority of a master. This is one terrific debut.Pub Date: April 28, 2005
ISBN: 1-56512-409-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2005
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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