Somewhat appealing, but stymied by an underdeveloped plot and characters.
A salesman in the 1950s goes on the hunt for sales and adventure in Mack’s (On My Dime, 2017) novella.
When Charlie Taylor was a young boy, he was misdiagnosed with “manic depression,” or bipolar disorder, but he was never “down in the dumps”—he was solely manic, “bouncing around like a pinball.” During his formative years, he poured this energy into misbehavior, such as letting the air out of the local sheriff’s tires. He finally found himself “a real job” at the age of 19, working as a door-to-door salesman selling the Globe Reader magazine, in and around Springfield, Missouri. His endeavors are rewarded when he’s asked to join a crew of traveling salesman who are driving around the Midwest “on the Globe Reader’s dime.” He joins Bill, his boss and driver, and three others—Clifford, Jerry, and Gino—who hope to make lots of sales and have new experiences along the way. As Charlie works his sales pitches, he’s chased by the angry husband of a female customer at one point, but little else of great note occurs. The novella is narrated by Harvey Trotter, a friend of Charlie’s in later life, and Mack shows how Harvey delights in the spectacle of the salesman’s mania-fueled actions: “Charlie had his suitcase in hand and was running down the street. Running to where, nobody knew.” The story seems intended as a tender tribute to a colorful character, but there’s something uncomfortable about drawing entertainment from a life dictated by mental illness, regardless of how happy Harvey perceives Charlie to be. The narrative tone is warm and personable, though, which gives the novella an undeniable charm: “Out in the back alley sat their ride, a 1952 Ford Woody. It was quite the car of its time. I’ll say this: If you can find one today that’s been restored, you’d be sitting on a gold mine.” That said, the tale is all too brief at just over 50 pages, and it doesn’t allow for the full flowering of Charlie as a character or provide an in-depth exploration of his illness.
Somewhat appealing, but stymied by an underdeveloped plot and characters.Pub Date: March 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-984513-11-3
Page Count: 62
Publisher: XlibrisUS
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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