An intelligent fiction debut by a capable writer.
Award-winning journalist Emerson (Gaza, 1991, etc.) tries her hand at fiction with a story that draws on her knowledge of the Third World.
Like Graham Greene, a central if off-stage figure here, Emerson has spent significant time in such outposts of upheaval as Vietnam, the Gaza Strip, and, most recently, Algeria. Here, the protagonist, Molly Benson, is a wealthy, well-intentioned eccentric, obsessed with Greene and eager to do good. She met Greene once and corresponded with him for many years until his death in 1991. Molly’s brother, a leftist freelance journalist, was killed under mysterious circumstances in El Salvador. Now she’s preparing for the latest is a series of self-devised humanitarian missions: a trip to Algeria to give money to writers and intellectuals threatened by the Islamic fundamentalists engaged in a guerrilla war against the equally repressive “socialist” regime there. She’s accompanied by an unlikely pair—her lifelong friend, the childish Bertie, and Toby, a portly, loquacious English graduate student. Putting this trio into the volatile conditions in Algeria is a recipe for disaster and, naturally, each of their good deeds leads to torment for some unsuspecting victim of their largesse. If this sounds like one of Greene’s mordant fables of foolish innocents abroad, wreaking unintended havoc with their liberal good intentions, that’s obviously not an accident. Emerson invokes Greene repeatedly here, not only in Molly’s constant musings on his life and work but in her own stylish prose and satisfyingly sound plot construction. There are moments when the novel reads a little too much like a newspaper synopsis of the Algerian situation or a quickie recap of Greene’s major themes, but such lapses are mercifully few. And despite the temptation to reduce Molly to a caricature, Emerson never fails to convey the pain underneath her heroine’s fumbling goodwill.
An intelligent fiction debut by a capable writer.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2000
ISBN: 0-679-46324-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
An engaging, inclusive debut.
A young woman with cognitive disabilities finds inspiration in Viking legends and prepares herself to become a hero when her brother gets involved with drug dealers.
Zelda knows she’s different than most people she meets, and she understands that difference is because of something called fetal alcohol syndrome. She has seen the unkind glances and heard the muttered slurs, but really, she just wants what any 21-year-old wants: love, acceptance, and some degree of independence to make decisions about her life. Also? A really good sword would be useful. Zelda is obsessed with Vikings—their legends, their fierce loyalty, their courage in the face of danger. Like the ancient clans, she finds strength in her tribe: her older brother, Gert, and his on-again, off-again girlfriend, AK47, plus her helpful therapist and her friends at the community center, especially her boyfriend, Marxy. He isn’t the best kisser, but he’s willing to try sex, a subject about which Zelda is definitely curious. But when Gert struggles to pay the bills and gets involved with dangerous drug dealers, Zelda knows she has to step in and help him whatever the cost. “The hero in a Viking legend is always smaller than the villain,” she reasons. “That is what makes it a legend.” In this engaging debut novel, MacDonald skillfully balances drama and violence with humor, highlighting how an unorthodox family unit is still a family. He’s never condescending, and his frank examination of the real issues facing cognitively disabled adults—sexuality, employment, independence—is bracing and compassionate. With Zelda, he’s created an unforgettable character, one whose distinctive voice is entertaining and inspiring. Will appeal to fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
An engaging, inclusive debut.Pub Date: Jan. 28, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9821-2676-6
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Like a pair of distressed designer jeans, the narrative's scruffiness can feel a little too engineered, but the narrator's...
A young woman with a knack for trick shooting heads west in the late 1800s to track down her outlaw brother.
Jessilyn Harney, the folksy narrator of Larison’s third novel (Holding Lies, 2011, etc.), has grown up watching her family lose its grip on its prairie homestead: Her mother died young, and her father is an alcoholic scraping by with small cattle herds. He’s also persistently at loggerheads with Jess' brother, Noah, who eventually runs off to, if the wanted posters are to be believed, lead a Jesse James–style criminal posse. So when dad dies as well, there’s nothing for teenage Jess to do but head west to find her brother, which she does disguised as a man. (“A man can be invisible when he wants to be.”) Her skill with a gun gets her in the good graces of a territorial governor (Larison is stingy with place names, but we’re near the Rockies), which ultimately leads to Noah and a series of revelations about the false tales of accomplishment that men cloak themselves with. Indeed, Jess’ success depends on repeatedly exploiting false masculine bravado: “I found no shortage of men with a predilection for gambling and an unfounded confidence in their own abilities with a sidearm,” she writes. The novel’s plot is a familiar Western, with duels, raids, and betrayals, brought thematically up to date with a few scenes involving closeted sexuality and mixed-race relationships. But its main distinction is Jess’ narrative voice: flinty, compassionate, unschooled, but observant about a violent world where men “eat bullets and walk among ghosts.” The dialogue sometimes lapses into saloon-talk truisms (“Men is all the time hiding behind words”; “Being a boss is always knowing your true size”). But Jess herself is a remarkable hero.
Like a pair of distressed designer jeans, the narrative's scruffiness can feel a little too engineered, but the narrator's voice is engaging and down-to-earth.Pub Date: Aug. 21, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-7352-2044-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
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