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SAVING HISTORY

Name: SAVING HISTORY
Author: Fanny Howe
ISBN: 1-55713-100-7

by Fanny Howe ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 1, 1993

Provocative subject but ultimately too disjointed, as ideas and insights proliferate without any coherent connection.

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As usual from Howe (Famous Questions, 1989; The Deep North, 1988, etc.), a brilliant, often lyrical novel driven by a strong moral imperative in a gritty, surreal setting—but ultimately overwhelmed by a narrative that tries too hard, and ends too easily.

In a tale written to explore moral ambiguities in an often political context—the question of "un-American activities" is a subtext—Howe tells the story of Felicity Dumas. Descended from an ethnic mix of native and immigrant Americans, Felicity grew up in Maine, where she met Temple, who since her teens has served "the function of boss, seducer, never-lover, and owner of the world in which she was condemned to live." It is Temple who rescues Felicity and her daughters, Lee and Matty, from her abusive marriage, then arranges for her to help Tom, an activist lawyer, take care of his dying father. Tom, whose communist father had not only seduced fellow-communist Pedro's mistress but later betrayed him to the government on a false charge, is the apparent representative of virtue, while Temple—a dabbler in drugs, right- wing politics, and the selling of body parts from Mexico—is the Prince of Darkness who's ruined Felicity's life because she'll always be beholden to him—especially when she discovers that Matty needs a liver transplant. Temple is prepared to help for a price: Felicity must cross into Mexico and pick up a cooler of body parts. Meanwhile, Tom, learning of his father's perfidy, travels to California to see the jailed Pedro and also Felicity, whom he meets up with but can't really help (despite his goodness, all he ever did "was listen"). When Felicity refuses to cooperate, Temple makes a startling confession, but Matty dies, and Felicity sets off on a redemptive journey back to Maine—and a slick happy ending.

Provocative subject but ultimately too disjointed, as ideas and insights proliferate without any coherent connection.

Pub Date: June 1, 1993

ISBN: 1-55713-100-7

Page Count: 230

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1993

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NEEDLE'S EYE
by Fanny Howe

- BOOK REVIEW
INDIVISIBLE
by Fanny Howe

- BOOK REVIEW
SELECTED POEMS
by Fanny Howe

- IN THE NEWS
Poet and Novelist Fanny Howe Dies at 84

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).

Pub Date: July 1, 2002

ISBN: 0-345-45071-X

Page Count: 352

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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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.