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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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.