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A YEAR OF MADNESS

Name: A YEAR OF MADNESS
Author: G. Franklin Prue
ISBN: 978-1453821855

by G. Franklin Prue ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 17, 2011

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A revenge tale set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement and the crime-ridden streets of the U.S. capital.

In the riots following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Holmes watches as his father is mercilessly gunned down, not by the overzealous white police force, but by a member of his community—the notorious, sadistic Charlie Ringnose. But as the connection for white sellers to funnel drugs into the black neighborhoods, Ringnose is untouchable in Washington, D.C., and the murder of Bobby’s father will seemingly go unpunished. Fast forward to Bobby as an adult, now a successful doctor but still haunted by the tragedy and more determined than ever to avenge his loss. Ringnose has had D.C.’s criminal element in a stranglehold for years, and the vengeful doctor isn’t the only one who wants him dead. Prue’s debut is overly ambitious—while it broadly addresses the themes of race and power in America, it ultimately falls short of identifying the connection implied between the two. Though enemies, Bobby and Ringnose are largely motivated by the same deep-seated rage, a resentment cultivated from years of struggling under racial inequality, but Bobby’s quest for revenge is never adequately tied to that anger specifically, while Ringnose’s lust for power seems born of simple greed. The novel’s prose is unique, deploying a semipoetic style with noir influences that alternates between candid and lyrical without being jarring, save for the disappointing moments when it falls back on hokey, action-movie tropes such as sensationalized gang wars or a hired-nursemaid assassin. The novel’s first half is the most notable and impressive, where the frank depictions of civil unrest in the 1960s—coupled with the younger Bobby’s wide-eyed wonder—capture a time in America when things seemed their bleakest, but people still dreamed of something better. Opens strong, but loses its way and becomes a cookie-cutter revenge story.

Pub Date: March 17, 2011

ISBN: 978-1453821855

Page Count: 252

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Aug. 10, 2011

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

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.

Pub Date: July 11, 1960

ISBN: 0060935464

Page Count: 323

Publisher: Lippincott

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.