Having blazed a history of New York in verse (New York on Fire, 1989—not reviewed), Obenzinger now offers stories from San Francisco's colorful past, superbly twisting fact and fancy in a delightful, memorable concoction. Drawn from the imaginary 19th-century Victor Archives, the historical highlights that the author has incorporated here range from details of early contact between Franciscan missionaries and the Indians they were intent on converting to an uncommon trial by fire in the 1906 Great Quake and conflagration. Whether in a scene of punishing a native for his audacity in kissing a white woman in 1776, or in an episode about experiencing the mind-altering conditions of the San Francisco Fire, themes of sex and violence predominate. A Mission father notes satisfaction when triumphing over more peace-loving brothers in 1799; a man recalls witnessing as a child the murders of his sister and brother, and hearing echoes of the violence—which included the execution of a man possibly innocent of the crime—in a wall of the house; and a woman is accused of violating social conventions by murdering her longtime lover, a married man who'd promised to leave his wife: the saga is rendered by one of the women attending the trail—itself a breach of the male courtroom bastion, and a sign of the times as the issue of women's rights gains attention. The title story concerns Gold Rush days and a quiet man rescued from South Sea cannibals who works for a Mormon-turned-unscrupulous-businessman, and who does his bidding without complaint—until it seems an innocent man has been hung by vigilantes ruled by his boss. Vivid, poignantly reconstructed moments in history—all rendered with wit and a keen eye for the quirks of human nature.
Pub Date: Sept. 20, 1993
ISBN: 1-56279-047-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1993
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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