Good old-fashioned snickering sexism generally hides behind closed doors these days, so it's with a sense of growing wonder that one slogs one's way through the veteran Denker's Dial-A-Diatribe, starring Judge Harry Spencer, Great Brontosaurus of the Federal bench. "Young woman, this Court takes judicial notice that all women have breasts. Even female attorneys. There is no need to flaunt them in my courtroom. So this Court can concentrate on your argument, you go home and put on a bra. With my limited experience in these matters, I would say a thirty-six C cup should do nicely." That's our hero, Federal District Court Judge Spencer, a cranky, cantankerous, gruff, but fair-minded—such is the author's painful misapprehension—old jurist who has just admonished a woman lawyer he believes is dressed for a "TV jiggle show" (a word to the wise in chambers is not Harry's style). The Women's Bar Association (naturally led by "an Amazon of a spinster in her mid-forties, tall, robust, attired in a quite masculine grey flannel suit") wants him to apologize, but there stands Spencer like a stone wall, so his old enemy, Chief Justice August Cartwright, takes advantage of the ensuing brouhaha to try to force him into retirement. Unabashed, Harry goes on about the business of trying Stockwell v. The State, a class-action suit claiming wage discrimination against female employees. Spencer finds the doctrine of Comparable Worth absurd and threatening (and Denker's stacked-deck version of it certainly is), so he writes a sarcastic opinion, and yet finds for the plaintiff, feeling certain higher courts will overrule him. But those crazed libbers at NOW (represented by actress/feminist/ exercise tycoon "Joan Esty") are too dumb to understand his deceptive plans, and Spencer coyly doesn't enlighten them when he flies out to L.A. to receive their Man of the Year Award. In fact, the gals find him such a charming old coot that they inundate August Cartwright and his buddies with letters, and Harry's job is saved. Back in the office, in an expansive mood, Harry reminisces with his secretary: "God, Betsy, remember this case? Esther Freihofer v. Acme Tool and Die. Clear case of reverse discrimination. Claimed she was held up to ridicule because she was the only girl in the office her boss never made a pass at." Shallow and tendentious. Strictly for cracker-barrel cacklers.
Pub Date: April 1, 1986
ISBN: 0688063861
Page Count: 332
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 29, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1986
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
