THE PRICE YOU PAY

Name: THE PRICE YOU PAY
Author: Ellen Winter
ISBN: 0-87074-456-9

by Ellen Winter ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 20, 2000

Winter’s view of life on the margins is clear-eyed and unsentimental, yet the stories often end with grace notes of hope or...

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An impressive debut collection of short fiction set mostly in the modern American Southwest.

Peopled by drifters, loners, pot dealers and dreamers, these 16 stories about men and women trying to connect are more lyrical and perhaps more forgiving than Pam Houston’s western tales, if not as amusing. Pickup trucks and junk cars transport the characters from unwanted pasts to uncertain futures. Dogs large and small wander through the pages, often providing a steadfast contrast to the transient and inexplicable actions of the human characters, sometimes falling victim to those actions. In her strongest efforts, Winter brings original and daring twists to her themes: “The Price You Pay” is more than your usual girl-hitchhiker-picked-up-by-older-guy tale; “Pretty Please” is a remarkably artful gender-bender, and “Contra Dance” is far richer and wiser than most romantic-triangle dramas. There are also finely honed stories of understated menace and suspense, such as “The Boys” and “Call Me Ruby.” The author is refreshingly sympathetic toward all her characters, of both sexes, and can write convincingly from a masculine point of view (as in “The Planting,” a guy’s-gotta-go story), though sometimes her male narrators seem a bit too lyrical, too dreamy—too good to be believed (“Love In The Desert” comes to mind). She writes about sex directly, but with poetic restraint, and she evokes the sere, empty beauty of the desert with an admirable eye for detail. Except for the occasional labored metaphor, the prose is tight, spare, and lyrical.

Winter’s view of life on the margins is clear-eyed and unsentimental, yet the stories often end with grace notes of hope or affirmation. A promising new talent.

Pub Date: Dec. 20, 2000

ISBN: 0-87074-456-9

Page Count: 240

Publisher: Southern Methodist Univ.

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2000

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.