Another act of literary terrorism from British satirist and live-wire Weldon (The Cloning of Joanna May, 1989, etc.), only this time far more wide-ranging and rabidly polemic than even before. Weldon's subject now is Eleanor Darcy, the high priestess of Darcian Monetarism, a utopian ideology aimed at saving shabby old Thatcherian England from the ills of inflation by phasing out money altogether. The theory, ostensibly the brainchild of Eleanor's second husband (now in prison because of the chaos that ensued when the economic strategy was implemented for one morning only), really came from Eleanor herself, known in the press as Rasputin's Bride. And Eleanor, being interviewed in this novel by two journalists—trim Valerie, writing for the women's rag Aura, and Hugo, of the higher-toned Independent—has thoughts of a world of topics besides money: namechanging, a practice that will be encouraged in Darcy's utopia ("My advice to everyone is to change their names at once if they're the least unhappy with their lives"); sex, the source of all good in the world; Marxism and Catholicism, both palliatives; elocution and miscegenation, two waves of the future, and much more. Piecing together hints from the evasive Eleanor, Valerie concocts a personal biography for her magazine's readers, revealing that Eleanor, born with a caul and originally named Apricot (after the shade of her mother's nightie), is a bigamist, social-climber, and witch who wrecked the lives of the men who loved her. Hugo concentrates on the theoretical, and on Valerie, who becomes his mistress. During the time they're in contact with Eleanor, the two of them leave their spouses and children and shack up together in a Holiday Inn. Once their pieces are finished, though, the affair collapses—presumably a romantic utopia, given too little time. Nonetheless, Eleanor has changed their lives, and will change others, since Hugo starts a religion dedicated to her. An ideological mine-field, with Weldon-as-Eleanor birthing a wild idea a minute. Still, some shrapnel hits home, for what Weldon seems to be saying is that desperate, possibly lunatic measures are called for if we're to transform a desperately sick world.
Pub Date: March 1, 1991
ISBN: 670-83645-1
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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