A novel for those with no aversion to the broadest satire or affinity for political correctness.
A preposterous setup eventually pays entertaining dividends in this slapstick send-up of show business in general and hip-hop in particular.
Subtle, it isn’t. Sophomoric, it may be. But there are plenty of laughs in this debut novel about an unassuming Jewish, 30-something schlub who somehow finds himself the ghostwriter for the misogynistic, streetwise rhymes of Oral B, America’s premier gangsta rapper (think Snoop Dogg of old, or 50 Cent). In the slow opening, first-person narrator Wally Moskowitz spends so much time telling the reader what a “frumpy, kind chubby little boring man” he is that some might be tempted to take him at his word and quit in the middle of “chizapter 1.” Setting the plot in motion is a chance (or not so chance?) encounter in a public restroom between Wally and a minor member of Oral B’s posse, who reveals to Wally he knows the secret nobody is supposed to know: that Oral B’s genius raps are actually Wally’s. The flustered Wally proceeds to urinate on the thug in retaliation. Now he’s got two worries: that the thug will get back at him and that the leaked secret will get back to the scary mogul behind Oral B’s record label, Godz-Illa Records. In the meantime, Moskowitz is still trying to peddle a series of Dr. Suess–like books aimed at adults, with subjects such as organized crime, oral sex and illegal drugs. These short books, though they helped him procure the deal with Godz-Illa, aren’t nearly as funny as the obscene raps he writes, but they somehow find a publisher who wants them cleaned up and transformed into a series aimed at children. The rest of the plot pivots around a scheming (and stereotypical) agent, a dognapping, a beautiful woman who inexplicably throws herself at Wally, a murder charge and characters with names such as Yo Yo Pa and Sue Schadenfreude.
A novel for those with no aversion to the broadest satire or affinity for political correctness.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-1-4165-3786-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2007
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
