A feminist reworking of the Fall, by Simpson (Notes on an Emergency, 1982), that makes the exciting and provocative sound dull and ho-hum. Lilith, in Jewish folklore the first mate of Adam, narrates this story of ``how-it-might-have-been'' if history and theology had been written by women. Certainly no apologist for Lilith—who chose to leave Paradise and roam the world as a demon frightening pregnant women and perpetrating a great deal of nasty and malicious mischief—Simpson suggests that it was not Lucifer but rather Lilith, who, jealous of Eve and of Adam's love for her, tempted Eve. Disguised as a serpent, Lilith shows Eve the apple, then rapes her while she's eating it. After the couple's expulsion from Paradise, Lilith continues to meet Adam, a weak and silly man, on the sly; and when Eve and Lilith both fall pregnant, Adam persuades Lilith not to harm Eve. In exchange, he promises to rear Lilith's child, who is switched with Eve's. Accordingly, the innocent and very decent Eve raises the evil and half-demon Cain, while Lilith does a reluctant and halfhearted job of raising the good and wholly human Isaac. When Cain, jealous of his younger and nicer sibling Abel, murders him, he is punished by God with immortality and a facial disfigurement—the mark of Cain. Adam grows old and increasingly religious, establishing a complete liturgy and rite; Lilith finally tells Isaac of his true birthright and, in an uncharacteristic moment of humility, asks God to let the human and decaying side of Cain die so that he, as a full demon, might join her and Lucifer in hell, where God now imprisons her. And there it ends, as it might have been: Cain freed but Lilith ``forever captive.'' Impeccable though conventional prose and potentially provocative ideas—but all undercut by flat characters and pedestrian storytelling.
Pub Date: June 30, 1991
ISBN: 0-912292-93-8
Page Count: 176
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1991
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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