by Göran Tunström ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 1995
A noted Swedish writer makes his English-language debut with a novel that limns in lyrical prose the dispiriting saga of a family blighted for three generations by a bizarre accident. Evoking mood and scene with beguiling skill, Tunstrîm tells a dark tale weighed down by tragedy and madness. And though there is a long-deferred expiation of grief—the staging of Bach's Christmas Oratorio in the family's hometown by a grandson, 50 years later—the redemption is bought at great cost. On a fine June day in the early 1930s, watched by her children Sidner and Eva-Liisa, beautiful Solveig sets off from their farm on her new bicycle. Within minutes she is dead, crushed by a herd of stampeding cows she's unable to avoid. Her husband, Aron, is devastated, and young Sidner will never fully recover, though he will inherit Solveig's talent and passion for music, which led her to propose a production of the daunting Oratorio by the local church choir. Aron sells the farm and finds work in town, but is still haunted by Solveig. Convinced that she is reincarnated in the unhappy Tessa, with whom he has been corresponding, Aron sets off for Tessa's home in New Zealand, with tragic consequences. Sidner, a sensitive and introverted adolescent, is seduced by a much older woman, who bears his child, Victor. Troubled by tragic and erotic dreams, Sidner breaks down and is confined to a hospital for the mentally ill. A journey to New Zealand after his recovery to see the equally troubled Tessa offers a small measure of comfort, but it is Victor, a musician and conductor, who finally lets ``the music that gives us hope ring out.'' Comes close to confirming all those clichÇs about the cheerless Swedes, but beautifully written with finely wrought perceptions.
Pub Date: March 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-56792-008-X
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Godine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1995
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
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