Though her parents deplore Ruth's ``bohemian'' lifestyle, stage-struck Patty dearly loves her glamorous actress aunt; the two are true friends and confidantes. Then Ruth arrives at Patty's home in Scarsdale with a devastating problem: the complications of diabetes may require amputation of a leg. More than half the book involves the operations, disappointments, and family trauma as Ruth loses one and then the other leg; meanwhile, her husband brutally announces by phone from L.A. that he's left Ruth for her best friend, and Patty plays a minor role in a high-school production of Our Town. Later, Ruth begins her rehabilitation, and Patty gets to play Juliet and wonders whether she's really cut out to be an actress. Much of the emotional action here turns on the family dynamics: Mom obediently gave up a career as a pianist to become a stockbroker; Ruth is a former rebel who denigrates her own success (just soaps and ads); and now doctor Dad opposes Patty's ambition. The parallels are worth exploring; unfortunately, Rosofsky spends too much time on realistic but repetitious dialogue and explanation of Ruth's adult problems, depicts Patty's parents as almost one-dimensionally narrow-minded and authoritarian, skimps on Patty's relationship with friend Helen, whose betrayal is crucial to her theme, and—near the end— thrusts a new career goal (writing) on Patty without really motivating it. There's much of value here, but it hasn't been developed to good advantage. (Fiction. 12-16)
Pub Date: May 15, 1991
ISBN: 0-06-025087-9
Page Count: 215
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1991
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a...
Han’s leisurely paced, somewhat somber narrative revisits several beach-house summers in flashback through the eyes of now 15-year-old Isabel, known to all as Belly.
Belly measures her growing self by these summers and by her lifelong relationship with the older boys, her brother and her mother’s best friend’s two sons. Belly’s dawning awareness of her sexuality and that of the boys is a strong theme, as is the sense of summer as a separate and reflective time and place: Readers get glimpses of kisses on the beach, her best friend’s flirtations during one summer’s visit, a first date. In the background the two mothers renew their friendship each year, and Lauren, Belly’s mother, provides support for her friend—if not, unfortunately, for the children—in Susannah’s losing battle with breast cancer. Besides the mostly off-stage issue of a parent’s severe illness there’s not much here to challenge most readers—driving, beer-drinking, divorce, a moment of surprise at the mothers smoking medicinal pot together.
The wish-fulfilling title and sun-washed, catalog-beautiful teens on the cover will be enticing for girls looking for a diversion. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: May 5, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4169-6823-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2009
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point.
After Hitler appoints Bruno’s father commandant of Auschwitz, Bruno (nine) is unhappy with his new surroundings compared to the luxury of his home in Berlin.
The literal-minded Bruno, with amazingly little political and social awareness, never gains comprehension of the prisoners (all in “striped pajamas”) or the malignant nature of the death camp. He overcomes loneliness and isolation only when he discovers another boy, Shmuel, on the other side of the camp’s fence. For months, the two meet, becoming secret best friends even though they can never play together. Although Bruno’s family corrects him, he childishly calls the camp “Out-With” and the Fuhrer “Fury.” As a literary device, it could be said to be credibly rooted in Bruno’s consistent, guileless characterization, though it’s difficult to believe in reality. The tragic story’s point of view is unique: the corrosive effect of brutality on Nazi family life as seen through the eyes of a naïf. Some will believe that the fable form, in which the illogical may serve the objective of moral instruction, succeeds in Boyne’s narrative; others will believe it was the wrong choice.
Certain to provoke controversy and difficult to see as a book for children, who could easily miss the painful point. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2006
ISBN: 0-385-75106-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: David Fickling/Random
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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