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TRUMPED

Name: TRUMPED
Author: Francis J. Roche
ISBN: 978-1-4575-6003-3

by Francis J. Roche ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 5, 2018

Though its execution isn’t entirely successful, this slapstick political tale repeatedly hits a bull’s-eye.

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In this debut farce, the U.S. president makes it his personal mission to take out his enemies in Iran and North Korea.

President Donald Trump’s post-golf good mood is quashed when he catches a news report of Ayatollah Sid insulting his mother. He gathers his “team”—Jared, Mike, and Don-Don—and takes Air Force One to Tehran. Tracking down Sid necessitates riding camels through the desert and stopping off at a hostel called Grandma’s House. But following a harrowing shootout, Trump opts for seeking help from private detective Shirley Holmes at 221B Bahka Street. Their collaboration a success, a victorious president then directs the team, including Shirley, to his next target: North Korean leader Yung Cur-Mud-Geon. They’re once again caught up in ludicrous but undeniably dangerous circumstances, but they make it home with nearly everyone intact. Unluckily, Trump faces betrayal back at the White House, where it seems someone is trying to oust him from the Oval Office. He’s suddenly up against an impeachment trial, where there’s fairly damning evidence of his illicit deeds. Trump has already identified the traitor, and with his presidency now at risk, he has revenge on the mind—and the audacity to mete it out. Roche’s goofy novella is rife with absurdity. Much of it is genuinely funny, like a rather odd jumble of movie references, from Casablanca to Weekend at Bernie’s. The satire is generally broad but hard-hitting, especially the president’s sexual antics (Mike braves Trump’s wandering hands at a Holiday Inn). It’s likewise telling that the smartest character in the book is a woman, Shirley, who, in an intriguing turn, is surprisingly vicious. The bare-bones prose suits the quick tempo but occasionally shortchanges the story; more specifics, for example, on the six guns Trump is prone to brandishing could have significantly amped the hilarity. At the same time, the author’s stick-figure Trump illustrations that accompany each chapter are mildly amusing but ultimately dispensable.

Though its execution isn’t entirely successful, this slapstick political tale repeatedly hits a bull’s-eye.

Pub Date: Jan. 5, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4575-6003-3

Page Count: 96

Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing

Review Posted Online: Feb. 23, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.