A family history of sorts, traced out by Masters (Success, 1992; Strickland, 1989, etc.) in two directions to converge in the most unlikely manner. Two independent stories are told in alternating chapters, though their relation is implied at the beginning and quickly becomes recognizable. The first tale, set in 1939-40, concerns Roy Armstrong, an American aviator stranded in Mexico. Roy has been stripped of his US citizenship because of his participation in the Spanish Civil War, and his efforts to regain it bring him into the arms of Peggy Arnett, a Pittsburgh steel heiress who hovers around any political cause ripe enough to carry the odor of revolution. The fact that Roy has a Communist lover only increases his allure in Peggy's eyes, and she manages to use her family's influence to restore him to the good graces of the Roosevelt Administration. We first meet Walter Hardy, our second hero, in 1968, when he is 28 and setting out on a career in politics; he eventually becomes a go-between for the Reagan White House in its dealings with the Nicaraguan freedom fighters. His father had worked as a chauffeur for Mrs. Arnett, who took an early interest in Walt, sent him to Cornell, and remembered him in her will. Now the Oliver North hearings have Walt in the hot seat, but fortunately he has come into possession of a paper trail long enough and damning enough to take down some people far more prominent than himself. Much of this trail leads overseas, and in pursuing it Walt finds that it adds up to a strange web of intrigue with Peggy Arnett at the center, and many apparently independent players, such as Roy Armstrong (and Walt Hardy), inextricably tangled in it as well. As a political morality tale, surprisingly subtle and deft. Masters is gifted with an easy style that lends obvious plot twists freshness and credibility, and that keeps a fundamental lack of originality from intruding upon the story's progress. Overwrought but palatable.
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 1996
ISBN: 1-877946-73-7
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Permanent Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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