A historically astute story with a memorable protagonist, undermined by overdone dialogue.
A British teenager connives his way into the Royal Navy during World War II in this debut novel.
After the German occupation of Poland, Britain officially declares war, forcing teenager Eddie Roberts from the London area to the countryside. He lives there begrudgingly until he makes the acquaintance of a young woman named Barbara Lewis. But then Eddie’s mother comes to fetch him home at his dying older brother’s request. Eddie returns to find that air raid shelters are being built for safety, and that his family is suffering financially. He takes the entrance exam for the Royal Navy College and passes, but his mother forbids his matriculation. However, he forges a birth certificate so that he can enlist nevertheless, inspired by a desire to travel the globe and also to find his friend, Jack Barrette, who was lost in the war. Eddie distinguishes himself with his bravery, but he’s injured during a torpedo strike on his vessel. He’s later selected for a secretive search-and-destroy mission in the Far East—a task he relishes as an opportunity to find Jack. However, he’s captured and kept at a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Thailand. Rhodes’ novel is, at its core, an adventure story: Eddie’s heart is so filled with wanderlust that it’s hard for readers to imagine him settling down, even in a time of peace. The author also stirringly captures the dawning reality of war for those on the homefront—particularly how the hope of averting disaster is swiftly replaced with brave resignation. But although the writing is frequently entertaining, Eddie almost exclusively communicates in witty quips and one-liners, which not only becomes tiresome, but also results in some overwritten dialogue. For example, when a girlfriend, Anita Barrett, tells him goodbye by saying, “You were the one who taught me how to fly, and were an excellent teacher,” he responds with an even sillier line: “Maybe so, but Peter Pan’s only flying on one wing, and has some growing up left to do.”
A historically astute story with a memorable protagonist, undermined by overdone dialogue.Pub Date: March 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5255-0098-5
Page Count: 324
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 8, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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