Religion and UFOs are fodder for an unconvincing jeremiad by Pulitzer Prizewinning syndicated columnist Anderson (The Japan Conspiracy, 1993, etc.). The human race has been deemed a failure by its intergalactic peers. One alien visits Washington, D.C., in 1999, hoping to warn the US President that the planet will soon be ``scrubbed'' of all sentient beings. After he is turned away from the White House, a gang member nicknamed Ghost knocks him out, steals his space suit and the rock he carries, and leaves him for dead. Heiress Serena Blake finds the alien with the homeless while doing volunteer work on the mall and, feeling an unexplainable affinity for this odd-looking man, names him Victor and takes him home. Ghost, hoping to get more alien devices (the ones he has have given him extraordinary persuasive powers), searches for him. Victor is also sought by Harry Lauter, a soap-box preacher who knows that the Dead Sea Scrolls predict alien visitation, and by a government agency so secret that it is unnamed. The standard MO of the agency is to infiltrate tabloids with absurd UFO stories so that actual abductees will come forward with their stories, but now it watches Harry, chases Ghost, and abducts everyone who has come in contact with Victor. They all learn of Victor's whereabouts when, through various contrivances, they spot Serena and Victor's photo in the society pages. Susan Hill, a Washington Times intern, finds Serena and Victor and enlists the help of her boss, syndicated columnist Mick Aaronson. The human race could be redeemed—if only the heroes can outwit vindictive government agents and urban youths. Victor convinces Mick to write columns that will rekindle the American spirit because, after all, if America is saved, the world is saved. A cautinary tale that adds nothing edifying to the trendy, sensationalist subject of UFOs except Anderson's own reductive views on contemporary societal ills.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-312-85401-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
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