Wagman (Magic Man, Magic Man, 1975, etc.) returns after almost 18 years to limn—in excruciatingly pretentious prose—the midlife crisis of an aging American Princess. As 40-ish Peachy Marvel, having dropped off daughter Ruthie at Harvard for her freshman year, walks down Brattle Street, she notices for the first time that she's become ``invisible.'' Men no longer look at the woman ``who used to make heads spin when [she'd] mosey down any street in Philadelphia''—which is enough of an observation to provoke the crisis that, admittedly, has been brewing for a while but now emerges in full spate. Peachy proceeds to record the fluctuations of this crisis that, begun on Brattle Street, continues in a bookshop where she meets the great writer Manuel Zot; gets into high gear on the Massachusetts Turnpike; and finally peaks at a niece's wedding in suburban Philadelphia. There, Peachy finds happiness, understanding, and a lot of other good things. In addition to the crisis reportage, there's a frenetic monologue—embellished with quotes from Pascal, Flaubert, and other fashionable intellectuals—in which Peachy tells the story of her life: A happy childhood as the adored daughter of her physician father is followed by an uneasy adolescence when her father is less loving; Peachy's voluble mother begins to plot marriage; and Peachy is expelled from high school for a reason so implausible that it can only be to facilitate the next step in her life—marriage at 18 to Alfred. A prosperous fur-broker, Alfred gives his young wife everything she wants; but when the couple's baby is killed in an accident, for which Peachy feels responsible, the two drift apart and Alfred leaves for another woman. But Peachy, bad memories finally exorcised, can now ``forgive so that you can go on loving,'' and move forward. Poor Peachy, poor us, who must endure her pretensions to humor, brilliance, and sympathy. More a lemon than a peach.
Pub Date: Jan. 19, 1993
ISBN: 0-939149-72-9
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Soho
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
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
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
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.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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