A promising but schizophrenic debut that pinballs between vibrant social realism and turgid mysticism.
New Age spirituality reclaims the fleshpots of Boca Raton in Merles’ flight of magical realism.
Calvin Jones is not just another homeless Black man on the upscale beachfront of the southern Florida town of Boca Raton—he’s a psychic visionary with access to the Akashic Record, a talent for astral projection and knowledge gleaned from a past life in biblical Gomorrah. His charismatic oratory, wellness advice (“Do less and breathe more”) and prophetic raps—“So when the Devil asks / Want to go fishin’? / say ‘no thanks’ and stick to your mission”—gather a following of troubled souls. Among them are the Finnstamocher family, including beaten-down housewife Mary, her hip, sarcastic daughter Jessica and Jessica’s stepfather Joe, a swaggering, politically incorrect, insecure businessman obsessed with the Miami Dolphins and the girls at Cheetah’s strip club. At the opposite pole is Venus, a gorgeous, otherworldly waif whom Calvin feels is destined to “lead multitudes” to “a higher plane of consciousness.” (Her sideline in nude dancing and massage is full of wholesome tantric energy and thus, in the book’s somewhat smarmy, hypocritical moral economy of exotic entertainment, the antithesis of the goings-on at Cheetah’s.) Merles’ wildly uneven first novel pulls in contradictory directions. Much of it is absorbing, hard-edged domestic naturalism, featuring sharply drawn characters with conflicted psychologies, rendered in superbly orchestrated scenes and pitch-perfect dialogue; the Finnstamocher clan in particular is a fascinating counterpoint of roiling id and numbed humiliation. Unfortunately, the author insists on smothering all discontents with bland New Age dogma that slows everything to a standstill for pages on end, especially when Calvin channels the droning psychobabble of the One Infinite Creator. (“Such thoughts and feelings of being alone, repeated over and again create negative patterns that contaminate and pollute your mind, causing blocks that hinder advancement.”) Merles is a talented writer, but he can’t decide whether to be John Updike or Shirley MacLaine.
A promising but schizophrenic debut that pinballs between vibrant social realism and turgid mysticism.Pub Date: April 17, 2011
ISBN: 978-1456352493
Page Count: 347
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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