Webster's rambling genealogical rundown has some humble charm, but his debut reads more like notes for a first draft than an actual novel. Hassalia, an African-American girl nicknamed ``Little Man'' by her family when she begins sporting glasses, talks about the life of Ma Rhetta, her grandmother, and other family members both chime in and are described in lengthy detail. About half this chatter is entertaining, but the many voices often blend together. Much of the dialogue is written in dialect (``I know you don't wanna be thinkin' 'bout no mens yet,'' Ma Rhetta warns Hassalia), and the relatives share a lot of verbal tics. The men have a habit of leaving; Ma Rhetta has borne four children by four different partners, and Hassalia notes, ``The daddies weren't there.'' Not all of these characters are promiscuous, however. One of Ma Rhetta's sons and his wife take six years to have a child, and then ``the two of 'em took so long to name him that 'til he was full grown hardly anybody ever used his real name.'' Each person has a story, usually hinging on a seminal moment. For example, Hassalia's Aunt Fanny took up with a white soldier, only to be abandoned on a train station bench after he had invited her to run away; then she went crazy. There are tangled tales of incest and love affairs that lead to violence. Hassalia is shocked to discover, especially from her mother, that Ma Rhetta was not always a nice person. The plot is difficult to follow and ultimately seems beside the point. The characters remain characters rather than people, and their stories remain stories rather than lives. Despite the geographic and emotional hyper-closeness of this clan, they sound distanced when discussing themselves and one another. A family reunion at which pleasure is scarce.
Pub Date: Nov. 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-932511-93-7
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 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
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