THE ESKIMO IN THE NET

Name: THE ESKIMO IN THE NET
Author: Gerard Beirne
ISBN: 0-7145-3093-X

by Gerard Beirne ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 25, 2003

Begins well and ends badly: Beirne, an Irish poet and storywriter living in Canada, grabs our attention right away and...

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Unsubstantial first novel about an Irish fisherman whose life is thrown into a psychic turmoil when he finds a dead Eskimo trapped in one of his nets.

Jim Gallagher is a dark, brooding Irishmen who seems to carry his own gray cloud with him wherever he goes. Born and raised in a coastal town in Donegal, Jim has a kind of wanderlust that won’t let him sit still for long. Not long ago, he spent several years in Alaska working in an oil refinery, but now he’s back in his hometown, working a fishing boat with his childhood friend Knucky. One day on the boat, they are horrified to find a human corpse tangled up in one of their nets. Knucky figures it’s the remains of someone buried at sea, but Jim recognizes the features as Esquimo. They bring the body into port and alert the harbor master, who hands the body over to the local police and washes his hands of the business. Perhaps Jim should have done the same. Instead, he’s haunted by the incident, and turns the discovery over and over in his head. He also talks about it to Frances, a local bartender who is Knucky’s on-again-off-again girlfriend, and Frances gets Jim to take her to see the body (which she proceeds to kiss on the lips). Jim and Knucky drink a lot and argue about whether they should have bothered hauling the body in. Eventually, Jim gets so drunk that he wakes up in bed with a woman he’s never met before. She says goodbye to him. They never meet again.

Begins well and ends badly: Beirne, an Irish poet and storywriter living in Canada, grabs our attention right away and proceeds to wander aimlessly through the rest of the tale.

Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2003

ISBN: 0-7145-3093-X

Page Count: 340

Publisher: Marion Boyars

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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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

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.