RUN OKIE RUN

Name: RUN OKIE RUN
Author: Hoyt
ISBN: 978-0615190945

by Hoyt ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 2008

While the execution often stumbles, this tale of a remarkable bull raises important ideas about animal abuse and cruelty.

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Hoyt’s debut novel uses touches of magical realism to describe a bull’s adventures.

Okie the bull is only a few minutes old when he has his first adventure, a run-in with a lion, which, sadly, was someone’s discarded exotic pet. Similarly, many of Okie’s experiences serve to highlight different forms of animal abuse or show the resilient character of the young bull. A rattlesnake friend is harvested illegally by a character known as Rattlesnake Anderson. Sometime later, it’s Okie and his best friend Harold, another calf, who are rounded up by Anderson. They become part of a rodeo in which the animals suffer numerous abuses. But when he sees Harold killed and discarded, it’s too much for Okie; he escapes the arena and finds himself in New York City. He swims to New Jersey and winds up going on a cross-country adventure; he meets both friends and foes on his journey back to Oklahoma, including one final run-in with the dastardly Anderson. It’s not immediately apparent who the intended audience is. While the language tends to suggest an adult audience, the length, subject matter and occasionally didactic style feel more appropriate for younger readers, though references like “Bill Clinton could not have slicked in better” will go over kids’ heads. Okie finds himself in many dangerous situations, but the distant tone of the narrator and a heavy use of the passive voice tend to downplay the seriousness of the encounters. Occasional meta moments can be distracting; at a pivotal point in the tale, the narrator asks, “Are you an Okie? Will you seize the ‘Okie Moment’ if you have a chance?” Though the animals are presented as sentient, they do not speak as humans. In this way, the book maintains a realistic tone even as touches of magic help to guide Okie on his journey.

While the execution often stumbles, this tale of a remarkable bull raises important ideas about animal abuse and cruelty.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2008

ISBN: 978-0615190945

Page Count: 117

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Dec. 8, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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DISTANT SHORES

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 2002

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...

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Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.

After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?

Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).