A second coming-of-ager from Swain (Eliot’s Banana , 2003) but, for obvious reasons, this heartfelt tale isn’t exactly...
Can a young Manhattan chef find happiness?
Ellie Manelli, known as Lemon, pretty much has it all. After several years, boyfriend Eddie still adores her. Bonus: he still likes to indulge in hot rooftop sex and cold champagne. Her new East Village restaurant, also named Lemon, is doing well, and she loves her work, reveling in the hectic pace of a professional kitchen and the long hours she puts in, ably assisted by an ethnically diverse staff. Wonder of wonders, though, she suddenly became the new It Girl of New York restaurants and still hasn’t quite recovered. Her Italian-American relatives thought cooking would be just a phase—they expected her to marry some hairy goomba from Brooklyn and have 27 kids. But no. Eddie is as preppy as they come, the Princeton-educated son of a textile magnate from Georgia. He has popped the question, though—several times. Unsure of herself, despite her successes, Lemon hasn’t said yes. Perhaps being orphaned at an early age has made her wary: her parents, described as beatniks (even though she’s far too young for that to be true), dumped her on willing relatives, ran off together, and were killed in an accident. So, okay, Lemon has commitment issues but nothing too serious. Uh, remember that careless rooftop sex? Lemon is pregnant. And suddenly nauseous. And sleepy. And feeling miserable and happy at the same time. At least Eddie is thrilled. But will his straitlaced family be? As soon as the Italian aunts know, they won’t leave Lemon alone for a minute. Should she marry Eddie? Does he still want to marry her? All this fretting is interspersed with inner monologues on the subject of pregnancy, addressed to the fetus (she’s sure it’s a girl). Unfortunately, Lemon suffers a miscarriage, described in bloody detail, that sends her into an emotional tailspin.
A second coming-of-ager from Swain (Eliot’s Banana , 2003) but, for obvious reasons, this heartfelt tale isn’t exactly entertaining.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-7434-6488-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Downtown Press/Pocket
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2004
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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