Faust (Newsreel, 1980, etc.) returns to the novel after a 14- year hiatus in this impenetrable tale comprised of shards of dialogue and a fragmented plot. Hollis Cleveland, our hero, has a gift: ``He knew what people were thinking about him.'' It's good that someone knows what's happening; regrettably, it is rarely the reader. Cleveland is a black man surviving in 1930s Harlem by racketeering for local bigwig Sol Winograd. When their relationship sours, Cleveland, aka Jim Dandy, flees New York for London, where he meets soapboxing general Henry Armitage, who sponsors him to go to Ethiopia, which is being invaded by Mussolini's Fascists, with whom Cleveland voluntarily becomes entangled. It seems that everyone wants Cleveland on his side: the Italians, the Africans, and other unmemorables who've flown down to the fray. After a post-plane- crash schlep through the war-torn desert, Cleveland ends up in Addis Ababa, where he indulges in a luxury hotel room and elegant new clothes. Fate tosses him from Ethiopia to Liberia and eventually back to New York. Winograd reappears at the end, in a rare instance of continuity, to make Cleveland a job offer. All this is communicated through stagy, stilted dialogue (Uncle Tomspeak for the black characters at the start; the Queen's English, I say, for the Brits) and descriptive passages with more holes and extraneous matter than a dirty spaghetti strainer. Where readers are supposed to infer, they must instead guess, assume, and misunderstand what is going on until the dreary end. The chapters are broken by random and baffling ``Interludes''—A Scientific Interlude, An Historical Interlude, A Demented Interlude, etc. A Lucid Interlude and some coherent narrative passages would have been welcome. Attempting to read Jim Dandy is like trying to assemble and drive the rusty scraps of an abandoned junkyard jalopy. You're better off renting a wreck than trying to jump-start this lemon.
Pub Date: June 27, 1994
ISBN: 0-7867-0062-9
Page Count: 304
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1994
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
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
