Despite some wooden dialogue, Kazan opens a window into a time period and a culture largely ignored or forgotten in the 21st...
Kazan explores the exciting and dangerous time in Turkey—or Anatolia—shortly after World War I, when Turkish nationalists under Mustafa Kemal are fighting to establish a post-Ottoman regime.
The narrator is Mary Di Benedetti, an American whose husband died at the Battle of the Somme—though Mary narrates these events from a perspective some 40 years after her husband’s death. After visiting his grave in France, she goes to Turkey to spend some time with her sister Connie and her brother-in-law John, a diplomat. Mary is an artist who likes to roam about unhampered to do her sketching, but one night, she witnesses an event that will change her life forever—a British soldier kills Halil, a Turk, in cold blood, though not before Halil gives some mysterious documents to Mary, who secretes them among her sketches. Halil also says something that sounds to Mary like “Holiday hanoom.” After this almost Hitchcock-ian scene, Mary finds out that a woman named Halide Hanim (the latter word an honorific, not a name) is working with the nationalists and is happy to receive the unexpected documents. Mary and Halide become good friends, as Mary starts to become more and more enamored with Turkish culture. She also meets Mustafa, Halil’s grieving father, and they begin a romantic relationship that must be carried on sub rosa. Although both the Allied (i.e., British) troops and the American consulate warn Mary of the dangers involved in her growing entanglement with Turkish politics and personalities, she increasingly devotes herself to the nationalist cause, even to the point of being threatened with arrest.
Despite some wooden dialogue, Kazan opens a window into a time period and a culture largely ignored or forgotten in the 21st century.Pub Date: April 12, 2013
ISBN: 978-1-6231-6004-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: OPUS
Review Posted Online: Feb. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.
Eleven years ago, he broke her heart. But he doesn’t know why she never forgave him.
Toggling between past and present, two love stories unfold simultaneously. In the first, Macy Sorensen meets and falls in love with the boy next door, Elliot Petropoulos, in the closet of her dad’s vacation home, where they hide out to discuss their favorite books. In the second, Macy is working as a doctor and engaged to a single father, and she hasn’t spoken to Elliot since their breakup. But a chance encounter forces her to confront the truth: what happened to make Macy stop speaking to Elliot? Ultimately, they’re separated not by time or physical remoteness but by emotional distance—Elliot and Macy always kept their relationship casual because they went to different schools. And as a teen, Macy has more to worry about than which girl Elliot is taking to the prom. After losing her mother at a young age, Macy is navigating her teenage years without a female role model, relying on the time-stamped notes her mother left in her father’s care for guidance. In the present day, Macy’s father is dead as well. She throws herself into her work and rarely comes up for air, not even to plan her upcoming wedding. Since Macy is still living with her fiance while grappling with her feelings for Elliot, the flashbacks offer steamy moments, tender revelations, and sweetly awkward confessions while Macy makes peace with her past and decides her future.
With frank language and patient plotting, this gangly teen crush grows into a confident adult love affair.Pub Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-2801-1
Page Count: 416
Publisher: Gallery Books/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Jan. 22, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
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