by Icki Iqbal ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 7, 2012
A well-portrayed streak of emotional growth runs through this man’s journey from bookish undergraduate to business leader.
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Part coming-of-age tale, part dark-side-of-business exposé, this novel chronicles an immigrant experience.
Majid Khan, who’s studying math at Cambridge in the 1970s, is more comfortable with numbers than people. He plans on becoming an insurance actuary, but it’s through Cambridge Union debates that he makes his mark and meets the fellow students who make a profound impact on his life. Ellen Evan is the first and only girl he takes an interest in, and Nick Knights brings out Majid’s competitive side, both in debates and after graduation, when Nick and Majid end up on the management fast track at the same firm. As his relationship with Ellen continues, Majid, who makes frequent references to the fact that he was almost considered autistic as a child, grows more comfortable with the fuzzier, more emotional side of life—something the author symbolizes by having Majid suddenly develop a sense of smell after being without it from birth. His professional life takes off at the same time, with the firm’s executives pushing Majid out of his comfort zone and into a place of prominence. He realizes he could one day see himself as a CEO, if only to ensure that Nick doesn’t get the position. When Majid tries to push the firm to meet the new British regulatory requirements (which, along with the country’s 1980s privatization plans and the intricacies of estate agencies, may be somewhat opaque to American readers), it’s evident that trouble lies ahead, especially when Majid, who has already seen his relationship with Ellen disintegrate, is pushed out of the company. Majid’s ethical man–vs.–corporate corruption battle makes for a compelling storyline, though it can at times get bogged down in the minutiae of financial products and management training exercises. On the other hand, his relationship with Ellen, especially as he sets wedding dates several years in the future and lets them slip by, may leave readers wondering if Majid will ever make it out of his extended adolescence.
A well-portrayed streak of emotional growth runs through this man’s journey from bookish undergraduate to business leader.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2012
ISBN: 978-0957026636
Page Count: 290
Publisher: DDKM (DADU, DEVI, KAARTU, MOOCHI) Publishing Ltd
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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