MARLENE DIETRICH LIVED HERE

Name: MARLENE DIETRICH LIVED HERE
Author: Eleanor Bailey
ISBN: 0-552-99863-X

by Eleanor Bailey ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 15, 2004

A heavy dose of schadenfreude: This very slick black comedy traces the gnarled roots of a family tree with an equal measure...

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In a kind of literary Hall of Mirrors set in post-communist Berlin, second-novelist Bailey (Idioglossia, not reviewed) portrays two brothers who have come together reluctantly and without enthusiasm to make peace after a near-lifetime of deception and jealousy.

Erich Brandt is no newcomer to Berlin, but he enjoyed the isolation of the city before The Wall came down and can’t quite acclimate himself to the go-go atmosphere of the new order. A painter of some note but no success, Erich makes his living as the proprietor of an art gallery/café and has more or less washed his hands of any cultural pretensions. Divorced, successful, and middle-aged, he is not prepared for the shock of his brother Max’s attempt at suicide. A photographer and womanizer, Max has lived in London for many years and has always served as something of a reproach to Erich, who secretly envies Max simultaneously for his success and for his lack of care over it. After Max tries to kill himself, Erich brings him back to Berlin to stay with him and sets about the awkward task of learning to talk to a brother he’d abandoned many years before. There are old wounds and new: Max slept with Erich’s then-wife, Ursula, many years ago, and Erich is now embarrassed by the trashy success of his and Ursula’s daughter Nina (a kind of German Karen Finley who strips and copulates in public). Max wanders through his old hometown (now unrecognizable to him) like a drunken ghost and manages to uncover the fundamental deceptions that surround nearly every member and friend of his family. This proves a nice diversion—until Max discovers that some deceptions of his own are up for examination as well.

A heavy dose of schadenfreude: This very slick black comedy traces the gnarled roots of a family tree with an equal measure of affection and disgust.

Pub Date: Nov. 15, 2004

ISBN: 0-552-99863-X

Page Count: 393

Publisher: Black Swan

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2004

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

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.