Fans of epic sagas should be happy to lose themselves in this lavish book—and there’s another volume to come.
In this sequel, treasure hunters chase a MacGuffin for the ages: the Crimson Heirlooms.
This story about the heirlooms—the fabulous Cross of Nantes and “the words of the devil’s song” at the carnage in the Vendée Militaire—toggles mostly between France and Hispaniola in the Caribbean from the late 1780s to the 1830s. The Guerrier twins, Estelle and Guillaume, aka Beau-Brave, are originally from Saint-Domingue on Hispaniola but now live in France. Beau-Brave is a charismatic figure determined to be a political playwright, advancing the Rousseau-ian ideals of the Enlightenment. Estelle has wound up in Nantes as a paid companion. She is almost too good for this world. She will fall in love with Xavier Traversier, the heir to his rich family’s mercantile operation in Nantes; be spurned; and—well, it is just too tragic. She wears the Cross of Nantes around her lovely neck, the mystical object that will disappear. The searcher who finds the heirlooms will legally inherit the Traversier family’s valuable holdings. Meanwhile, Jacob “Jake” Loring, an American student in France, battle-tested at the barricades, has been dragooned by his nemesis, Monsieur Tyran, into looking for the heirlooms in exchange for his life. Eventually, Estelle makes a fateful decision concerning the cross and her brother. Beau-Brave will surely play an important role in the French Revolution. Meanwhile—about 40 years hence—Jake runs into trouble in a supposedly safe haven. Dennis (The Crimson Heirlooms, 2018) is a talented storyteller and a sedulous student of history. The novel ranges from dramatic action to historical and philosophical exposition to a study of the often politically subversive theater of the time, with excursions into the lives of nightsoilers and the deadly combination of mobs and rumors. The author writes well: graceful, witty, imagistic. Here he discusses an associate of Xavier’s named Rag: “Today, he sat slumped in his chair, his eyes downcast, his mien pensive. Rag’s historical extroversion was so pronounced, his present demeanor was akin to his skull being inside out.” This engrossing installment comes with stark, grainy black-and-white photographs, mostly interior or exterior shots by Dennis of locales mentioned in the text. In addition, there’s a helpful list of main characters and a pronunciation appendix that offers much witty, snarky commentary.
Fans of epic sagas should be happy to lose themselves in this lavish book—and there’s another volume to come.Pub Date: May 14, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-9994936-5-6
Page Count: 584
Publisher: A-R-B Books
Review Posted Online: April 25, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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