Well-characterized, entertaining tale with a resilient heroine whose golden years take an unexpected turn.
In Conley’s (Bread and Stones, 1986, etc.) novel, a New York businesswoman confronts embezzlement by her own son.
Trading in diverse commercial real estate holdings and amassing a multimillion-dollar portfolio, Letty Lear has invested years of her life protecting and providing for her three children. She’s nearly 70 when her attorney advises that she incorporate and make her children (and him) the board of directors, thus giving them access to her finances. After her husband left her years ago for a man, Letty worked her way up, becoming a formidable matriarch with an acerbic wit, holding her own in a tough real estate market, and usually getting her way with her kids. Astute Letty is a force to be reckoned with—sharp and sharp-tongued, opinionated, funny, and at times charitable, not necessarily with money. Her oldest child, David, is an activist who’s taken in a Burmese refugee, precocious Tong, raising him as his son. Middle child Kate, recently separated, is a clutter therapist, and the youngest, Luna, is the sweet-natured mother of twins. David is increasingly concerned about poverty and violence in Darfur, as is his mentor, Jonathan Greene, who hopes to provide aid to alleviate a deteriorating situation. Eventually, funds will transfer from the Gates Foundation, but during the delay, people are dying in Darfur. By clandestinely borrowing Letty’s millions, David can provide relief now and postpone dealing with the consequences, which are considerable and not borne entirely by him. The novel shares some elements of Shakespeare’s King Lear, most notably a powerful, aging familial head ceding control of property to heirs, setting all in motion. The result is a touching comedy/drama of family dynamics, finances, business, and legalities. At 12, street-smart Tong is a standout character, more like Letty than her children. A natural leader, he’s disarmingly intelligent, reliable in an emergency, and resistant to David’s efforts to groom him for activism. Although the novel is hardly Shakespearean tragedy, it’s a well-crafted story of rebirth through crisis and finding redemption in unlikely places.
Well-characterized, entertaining tale with a resilient heroine whose golden years take an unexpected turn.Pub Date: March 30, 2015
ISBN: 978-1493651979
Page Count: 224
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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