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MANGLED NOIZE

Name: MANGLED NOIZE
Author: Fredrik P. Williams
ISBN: 978-1463757199

by Fredrik P. Williams ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 13, 2011

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A put-upon teenager runs away from home and winds up traveling the world, living a rock ’n’ roll fantasy in Williams' debut novel.

It takes Frederick Mathews exactly one week to start a new school, get into trouble and find himself homeless. Setting the tone for the rest of the book, an unaffected Frederick spends exactly one night on the streets before stumbling into a band’s practice space and, almost immediately, becoming their new bassist. Despite being sent out on the streets to sell drugs in order to fund the band, Frederick thinks he’s got it made—until he comes face-to-face with the bandleader’s ego during an extended engagement in Japan. The newly christened Fred Noize takes mere minutes to become the force behind a new band, Mangled Noize, whose setbacks and struggles don’t affect Fred in the least. That’s the shame of this book because Fred and Mangled Noize face some real difficulties: being stranded in a country where they can’t speak the language, radio stations in the United States won’t play their songs, a conniving woman thinks getting pregnant by Fred is her lifelong gravy train, encounters with heroin, the requisite hard drinking, and the pain of realizing that six years later, you’re unrecognizable to your own sister. Plum opportunities to build reader empathy through characterization are regrettably ignored. Instead, the book reads like rock star propaganda: the worst part of touring is a smelly tour bus bathroom, the girls are all perfect—and perfectly willing—and on-tour downtime can be spent exploring the city you’re in. This latter reveals one of author Williams’ weaknesses—many details of the rock ’n’ roll life add to the feel of fantasy while detracting from the book’s credibility. Overpopulated with secondary characters whose presence adds color but not depth, Fred’s adventures are told more than shown, a detriment to what could otherwise have been a very real, poignant tale of a young man who never lets the bad get him down.

Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2011

ISBN: 978-1463757199

Page Count: 270

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Feb. 29, 2012

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.