A stiff, predictable treatment of a subject that's anything but. Argentine Mart°nez's debut novel tells the story of two high- school friends, the unnamed narrator and Gustavo Roderer. The tale poses the boys as symbols of two types of intelligence: one that absorbs information, assimilates, and finds its place in the world; another that examines even the most basic assumptions about reality, neither fully accepting them nor finding acceptance. The novel consists of the clever, well-adjusted narrator's protracted gaze, at once admiring, envious, and disgusted, at the brilliant, brooding Roderer. This is a rather too neat, reductive way of depicting a relationship—as well as something as difficult to define as intelligence—and Mart°nez's chief failure is that he never really breaks free of the dialectic he sets up. The author gives the impression of scrupulously keeping his distance from his subject, as if to maintain his overdrawn distinctions. Even the book's title suggests remove. At one point in this novel of too many dialogues and too few conversations, Roderer theorizes on fiction writing: ``To move from the chaotic infinity, riddled with only partially coherent facts and relationships, that is before him, to the finiteness of a book, the writer can keep only a few elements. He must arrange them in the best possible way to create the illusion....But in the mistakes, through the cracks, one can sometimes glimpse the true abyss, the original vision.'' Masculine pronouns aside, that's an illuminating insight Mart°nez does not live up to: His novel abounds in skillful artifice, but the reader yearns for the ``mistakes''—the spontaneous, inconsistent leaps, twirls, and spills any narrative must make if it is to surprise and expand itself and its reader. Here, however, the narrative and the reader trot along toward a conclusion both can envision too early and too clearly.
Pub Date: Nov. 17, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-11374-9
Page Count: 96
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
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