Readers who like cow-related puns and vaudeville action will enjoy Granholm’s debut.
A comic disaster novel that marries Sharknado-type shenanigans with a keen sense of the absurd.
On the Pacific island of Wagyu, Dr. Yan Mishima dedicates himself to his greatest invention yet: a miniature nuclear power source known as a Nucliette. But when a freak ocean wave destroys the lab and whisks the Nucliette out to sea, hell follows with it. The destination: Bay City, where “meteorolonomicist” Devon Steerman, an expert in the study of how weather affects the economy; Tauros car salesman Belmont “Red” Simford; Simford’s henchman Dutch Friesian; celebrity impersonator Siri Batangas; a group of thrill-seeking surfers; and beat cop Chris Holstein reckon with the Nucliette’s awesome side effects. These include the creation of telepathic, fire-breathing cows with acid-spewing udders and explosive cow pies; mutant sea gulls; and comic chaos that will bring the world to the brink of annihilation. Meanwhile, aliens bearing an uncanny resemblance to Hereford cows plan to colonize Earth. Even those with little taste for bovine puns (of which there are plenty) will find themselves submitting to the sheer exuberance of Granholm’s vision. The plot hits all the typical nuclear-age B-movie beats as well as underlying environmentalist rage, liberally spiced with the author’s obvious knowledge of disaster scenarios. The story never quite reaches the dizzying literary heights of Kurt Vonnegut’s or Thomas Pynchon’s works, although Granholm clearly tips his hat to them with his ridiculous character names. However, the novel shares Stephen King’s books’ well-observed sense of place and pace, and even its pulpier prose resonates with the emphatic confidence of a writer who’s unafraid to double down on absurdity. Although the humor sometimes undermines the dramatic action and detracts from the careful worldbuilding, there’s no doubt that Granholm is technically skillful—as adept with comic characterization and juggling multiple viewpoints as he is with emphatically terrible jokes.
Readers who like cow-related puns and vaudeville action will enjoy Granholm’s debut.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9989631-0-5
Page Count: 212
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 30, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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