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TO SLEEP WITH GHOSTS

Name: TO SLEEP WITH GHOSTS
Author: G.F. Michelsen
ISBN: 0-553-08932-3

by G.F. Michelsen ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 15, 1992

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Tantalizing echoes of Achebe and Conrad in an ambitious first novel. Set in a nameless East African country, where an aging president has power for life and the official (and only) political party, NAFU, controls every aspect of life, the story is as much about the struggles of hapless Samuel Kimbu to find meaning in existence as an indictment of what the West and corrupt Africans have done to the continent. Samuel—a customs officer at the port of Mutara, where Arab dhows and freighters share dockage—spends his day examining lading bills and responding to queries from sea captains and merchants. A former merchant marine officer, unfairly punished for an accident, he dreams of returning to his beloved sea but instead finds himself caught up in a web of intrigue involving the CIA and Inspector Zulu, head of Security. Sent to Yemen as a spy, Samuel takes passage on a mysterious dhow that's supplying guns to a putative liberation group. He's caught, jumps ship, and nearly dies, but then is rescued—only to find that the promise to get him a job at sea was merely a ruse. Increasingly bitter, Samuel discovers next that his boss has enriched himself by smuggling, and that lethal chemicals from abroad have been dumped in Shebeen Town, the poorest quarter of the city. Forced to participate in an initially unsuccessful raid on the rebel group, he has, while their party awaits rescue, a brief affair with the daughter of the CIA official who's there to direct the operation. Back in Matara at his old job, Samuel has lost his faith in God and man—all that remains are the stories in us, ``as if every human in the last analysis were only a story told more or less well.'' Requisite local color and characters all well done, but the promising narrative peters out into a not-so-subtle—though understandably outraged—indictment of the usual villains. Still, Michelsen is a writer to watch.

Pub Date: July 15, 1992

ISBN: 0-553-08932-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Bantam

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1992

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE ART AND PRACTICE OF EXPLOSION
by G.F. Michelsen

- BOOK REVIEW
HARD BOTTOM
by G.F. Michelsen

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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

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER
by Harper Lee ; edited by Casey Cep

- BOOK REVIEW
GO SET A WATCHMAN
by Harper Lee

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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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.).