Political intrigue well-grounded in the evolving relationship between two lovers.
A family drama set against the backdrop of Moammar Gadhafi’s Libya.
In this debut novel, a college romance that spans continents settles into a contented marriage disrupted by political intrigue. Singapore-born Lina is attending college in the 1970s United States, enjoying a cosmopolitan social life among her fellow international students, when she meets Kamal, a Libyan graduate student and rising star in his country’s foreign relations. Their tentative attraction to each other grows quickly. By the time Lina and Kamal settle into marriage and parenthood, it’s time for their family to return to Libya, where Lina must adapt to both her numerous in-laws and life under a regime that’s growing increasingly unstable. Kamal slowly becomes disenchanted with Gadhafi, and Lina is repelled by the violence that becomes part of everyday life in Libya. Eventually, the family flees the country when Kamal is targeted for arrest, and they make their way back to the United States. Lina settles into life as a suburban housewife, but Kamal devotes himself to organizing fellow dissidents. Lina endures threats and harassment from agents of the Libyan government as they pursue opposition leaders in other countries, but when she discovers that Kamal is having an affair with one of his colleagues, she’s had enough. The blend of international intrigue—CIA and KGB agents play minor roles—with domestic concerns is balanced effectively, remaining in the realm of plausibility while adding a dash of adventure. Although the writing is somewhat unpolished, with occasional awkward phrasings—“I told him everything, ignoring his facial expressions, which might cause me to lose courage and omit some of the more pertinent information”—the book as a whole is engaging and readable. Lina, an observant and compelling narrator, propels much of the novel’s action while also serving as its emotional core. Through her eyes, readers discover the unfamiliar territory of 20th-century Libya, from the endearing warmth of Kamal’s family to the customs and culture to which Lina slowly adapts and embraces while retaining her identity as an outsider.
Political intrigue well-grounded in the evolving relationship between two lovers.Pub Date: Sept. 9, 2013
ISBN: 978-0989054300
Page Count: 316
Publisher: Whitfield Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 22, 2013
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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