A British first novel, an overripe plum of nostalgia and romance set in WW II England, that's something of a novelty item, containing as it does several wartime recipes that are fun to peruse, a bit tricky to carry out. Belle Morton, childless and disillusioned with marriage, decides to buy a lace-glove tea-restaurant and transform it into the ``Victory Cafe,'' where good food may be had even in wartime. It's a wizard success (British slang of the period abounds) and counts among its employees: mean Connie, who does the Victory out of deserved honors; young Wyn; and Wyn's best friend, Dorrie, she of the lovely singing voice and the awful parents of severe religious convictions. Then love comes to Dorrie in the person of a black American serviceman by the name of Lucky, one of three buddies who are welcomed to the cafÇ in spite of threats from a lethal white-supremacist sergeant. Later, the three GIs are entertained by the cafÇ's perennial upstairs tenant, Mrs. Renee Oblonsky, nicknamed ``Prin''; Dorrie launches a singing career; Lucky is killed, thanks to vicious persecution; and Dorrie discovers she's pregnant. It's Prin to the rescue—or is her solution the worst thing Prin could have done? And what of Belle with her Australian lover? Did she do what was right? At the close, in present time, there's a reunion between Belle and Dorrie, allowing the women to reconcile themselves with the past. The characters are elementary; the dialect at times lies heavy, heavy (From Lucky: ``Yer voice make me tremble when I hear it singin' in ma head''). As for the recipes: ``elderflowers'' may be a shade difficult to find, and items like ``national flour'' need research; but the names are delightful (``Shropshire Fidget Pie''?). Slight but harmless.
Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-312-13954-3
Page Count: 256
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
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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