An inventive parody of information retrieval, by the ever-amazing author of, among others, Was (1992), a revisionist modern version of The Wizard of Oz. Experimentalist Ryman here out-hops Julio Cort†zar’s 1966 novel Hopscotch (whose dozens of chapters could be read in any order). This time, he offers 253 character sketches of passengers aboard a tube train going from London’s Embankment station and passing under the Thames to Elephant & Castle—a trip that takes seven-and-a-half-minutes. Apparently first created and published on the Internet, the present “print remix” mocks and mimics both computers and writers— handbooks, featuring several amusingly parodic ads (—BECOME A WRITER IN YOUR SPARE TIME!—) and PERSONALS (“Swings both ways . . . male or female makes no difference to this post office counter worker . . .—). The book opens with a description of itself——THIS IS AN EZI-ACCESS NOVEL——and it is indeed reader-friendly, offering no tediously interminable descriptions, no complicated assembly instructions, and no batteries, though the self-description is followed by blurbs for Ryman’s earlier works, then by explanations (—Why the Title?—), as well as by —helpful and informative footnotes— and the culminating ad —At last! The book that thinks for itself! How often have you been embarrassed when serious fiction is discussed at the office?—In short, the book is about itself and its own creation, ending with a Reader Satisfaction Survey and an offer to include your own versions of Ryman’s mode of character-sketching in his sequel (send to Ryman’s website, no payment tendered). There’s no plot to speak of, only a sense of utterly serious description balanced with witty bromides that build to a vaguely exciting climax not to be revealed here, although you may read any of the 253 sketches (each 253 words long) in any order you please. Thank Thornton Wilder’s The Bridge at San Luis Rey and Joyce’s Ulysses for this kind of playful survey novel. Ryman is no Joyce, but he has his own eye and soul to offer. Surplus originality! MAY LAST THIRTY YEARS! TRY IT!
Pub Date: Sept. 14, 1998
ISBN: 0-312-18295-3
Page Count: 384
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1998
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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
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