Fans of classic literature may appreciate this and will no doubt enjoy picking out their favorite tales told in verse, but a...
In this homage to Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a diverse group of security guards in present-day Los Angeles compete in a storytelling contest in order to win time off from work.
The tale begins during the night shift at a hotel with the supervisor trying to determine who among the security guards should get the week off between Christmas and New Year’s. To choose the winner of the prized vacation, the group holds a storytelling contest, and the book’s narrator acts as judge. Most of the guards take their turn, giving their versions of classics from O’Henry, Poe, Gilman, Saki, Crane and others. The Brubury Tales follows in the footsteps of Chaucer and Boccaccio in that it borrows stories from previous authors, but the familiarity of the stories here detracts from the larger narrative. What is more appealing than the tales is the interplay among the guards themselves; unfortunately, this often takes a backseat to the stories. Because each guard tells an often impersonal story, there is little chance for the guards to deepen their personalities through the telling of their tales. What little is learned about the storytellers is gleaned through the narrator’s words or the few pages between yarns. Former security guard Mundo wrote the entire book in verse, and while the poetry is impressive, it doesn’t quite fit the setting—poetry doesn’t sound natural coming from a gaggle of security guards at a Holiday Inn in L.A. The Brubury Tales is an ambitious undertaking, one which is mostly successful as an exercise in literary imitation. However, if a reader wants to hear Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” he can do worse than reading the original.
Fans of classic literature may appreciate this and will no doubt enjoy picking out their favorite tales told in verse, but a replica will always pale in comparison to the original.Pub Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-7414-5975-6
Page Count: 233
Publisher: Infinity
Review Posted Online: June 22, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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