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THE MAN WHO WROTE THE BOOK

Name: THE MAN WHO WROTE THE BOOK
Author: Erik Tarloff
ISBN: 0-609-60468-6

by Erik Tarloff ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2000

A decorously risqué update of Lucky Jim with a climax out of The Big Clock.

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A sweetly amusing fairy tale about all the nice things that happen to a college teacher who anonymously publishes a dirty book.

Once upon a time, in the California town of Seven Hills, there lived an assistant professor named Ezra Gordon who was such a sad sack that when he and his old college friend Isaac Schwimmer met a pair of ladies at a restaurant, Ike’s pickup invited him to bed, and Ezra’s sold him insurance. But all that changes once Ike, a publisher of adult fiction who couldn’t agree more with Ezra’s perception that he’s on a downward slope, offers him a contract. Even before Ezra’s begun work, pinups start coming onto him—one of them, Ike’s neighbor Tessa Miles, inspiring delirious chapters in his burgeoning opus—and when he returns to the depths of Beuhler College, you’d think he was wearing seven-league boots. His old girlfriend Carol Dimsdale, Beuhler counsel and daughter of the fearsome Baptist college chaplain, apologizes for her chronic coldness; dazzling Tessa follows him from L.A. into his classroom to strike awe into the hearts of his students, attract propositions from Ezra’s colleagues, and evoke an even more forthright reaction from Ezra; and both women offer the still-passive lady-killer their undying loyalty while asking nothing in return. (No word on how his winning attitude affects Ezra’s weight or complexion.) When Every Inch a Lady, by one E.A. Peau, is published, rocketing to the top of Amazon.com’s charts and garnering praise from John Updike, Ike begs for a sequel. Some clouds arise when Peau is traced to Beuhler, but fans of the Brothers Grimm will recognize these travails as only a final testing ground for the plucky, vacuous hero.

A decorously risqué update of Lucky Jim with a climax out of The Big Clock. Tarloff (Face-Time, 1999) by-passes the normal pleasures of fiction to focus entirely on chastely high-concept fantasy.

Pub Date: May 1, 2000

ISBN: 0-609-60468-6

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 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.