A story with a well-developed protagonist who becomes more appealing as he overcomes obstacles.
In L.G.’s debut drama, a divorced man finds his calling as a truck driver, as the open road provides an escape from a life that’s been defined by failure.
Forty-something Sam Yost is stunned when his wife and the mother of his children, Chrystal, announces that she’s leaving him—and that she’d planned to do so for years. Tired of construction work and wanting a change of scenery, Sam becomes inspired by his brother-in-law and roommate Doug’s occupation as a truck driver, and he aims to become one himself. He takes a course to earn a commercial driver’s license; back in high school, he used to perform poorly on tests, and now he’s anxious about his instructor’s scrutiny from the passenger’s seat. Nevertheless, Sam prevails, but he’s soon faced with tribulations on the road, such as witnessing the aftermath of a horrific car collision and dealing with his truck sliding on ice. He takes solace in frequenting truck-stop diners, as the food reminds him of his tenderhearted mom, who used to console him with home-cooked meals. A waitress catches his eye, but he’s anxious about asking her out. He eventually realizes that all he needs is confidence, which is something that he has when he’s behind the wheel. The author smartly details the basics of operating a truck in lengthy sections devoted to Sam’s driving class; he does so by contrasting trucks with smaller vehicles—noting, for instance, the difference between air brakes and the better-known hydraulic variety. This amplifies certain scenes, including an unnerving moment when Sam nearly loses control of his rig during a turn onto an interstate. However, the story is at its best when it highlights the protagonist’s internal strife. Sam is shown to be socially awkward and possibly dyslexic, and the author draws on his protagonist’s recurrent childhood memories to show how he slowly gains self-respect in later life. With all this in mind, this is a surprisingly upbeat tale, as Sam revels in tiny victories: “Finding good diners on the road was kind of like finding a long-lost friend.”
A story with a well-developed protagonist who becomes more appealing as he overcomes obstacles.Pub Date: Nov. 17, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-4575-5901-3
Page Count: 234
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
Review Posted Online: Nov. 14, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
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.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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