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PUZZLES OF THE BLACK WIDOWERS

Name: PUZZLES OF THE BLACK WIDOWERS
Author: Isaac Asimov
ISBN: 0553402013

by Isaac Asimov ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 1, 1989

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The fifth collection of a dozen stories about the Black Widowers—that circle of self-styled intellectuals chronically unable to solve the riddles their dinner guests pose until they're rescued by their colorless waiter Henry. The stories, which rarely take the form of whodunits, return in some ways to the earliest detective stories in the range of problems they pose. How could someone have stolen a prize recipe from a locked house? What became of a cameraman who left his hotel for an engagement across the street but never arrived? Why would someone steal an old purse, then return its contents to the owner? But this freedom is purchased at a heavy price—for the stories are as gimmicky as ever, as tiresomely formulaic, as padded with vacuous conversation or smug didacticism, and as devoid of interest as intellectual puzzles for anyone who doesn't much care what work of literature might well be (there's a large dose of "might" in every solution) indicated by the phrase "triple devil," or what kind of man might call himself "Dark Horse." The Black Widowers invariably begin their grilling of their guests with the supremely churlish question "How do you justify your existence?"—an unusually apt question to put to this book. Asimov promises in two separate notes to continue the series "for as long as I live." A chilling thought.

Pub Date: Jan. 1, 1989

ISBN: 0553402013

Page Count: -

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1989

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE RETURN OF THE BLACK WIDOWERS
by Isaac Asimov & edited by Charles Ardai

- BOOK REVIEW
MAGIC
by Isaac Asimov

- BOOK REVIEW
GOLD
by Isaac Asimov

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CARRIE

by Stephen King ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1974

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these...

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Figuratively and literally shattering moments of hoRRRRRipilication in Chamberlain, Maine where stones fly from the sky rather than from the hands of the villagers (as they did in "The Lottery," although the latter are equal to other forms of persecution).

All beginning when Carrie White discovers a gift with telekinetic powers (later established as a genetic fact), after she menstruates in full ignorance of the process and thinks she is bleeding to death while the other monsters in the high school locker room bait and bully her mercilessly. Carrie is the only child of a fundamentalist freak mother who has brought her up with a concept of sin which no blood of the Lamb can wash clean. In addition to a sympathetic principal and gym teacher, there's one girl who wishes to atone and turns her date for the spring ball over to Carrie who for the first time is happy, beautiful and acknowledged as such. But there will be hell to pay for this success—not only her mother but two youngsters who douse her in buckets of fresh-killed pig blood so that Carrie once again uses her "wild talent," flexes her mind and a complete catastrophe (explosion and an uncontrolled fire) virtually destroys the town.

King handles his first novel with considerable accomplishment and very little hokum—it's only too easy to believe that these youngsters who once ate peanut butter now scrawl "Carrie White eats shit." But as they still say around here, "Sit a spell and collect yourself."

Pub Date: April 8, 1974

ISBN: 0385086954

Page Count: 216

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1974

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
OTHER WORLDS THAN THESE
by Stephen King & Peter Straub

- BOOK REVIEW
NEVER FLINCH
by Stephen King

- BOOK REVIEW
YOU LIKE IT DARKER
by Stephen King

- PERSPECTIVES
Appreciations: Carrie Turns 40

- SEEN & HEARD
Stephen King Used ‘Carrie’ Advance To Support Mom

- BOOK TO SCREEN
New ‘Carrie’ Series in the Works at Amazon

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.