The lives and loves of a group of New York women are breathlessly hashed over in this collection of amusing stories by a contributor to The New Yorker and Wigwag—droll, sophisticated fiction by a promising Brooklyn writer. As in all really good gossip, the characters in these interlocked accounts establish their roles quickly and with dramatic abandon: Susannah, who came to New York to be an actress, marries early and rich; Eileen Filley, the contentious and slovenly playwright, achieves success too young; Dee Kilmartin throws parties where drunks shatter mirrors in the foyer and fall asleep in the bathtub, while Liz Quirk informs everyone of the facts behind every rumor, and Rosemary, the narrator, lets the reader in on what's really going on. All approaching their 30s, these urban strivers meet at cafes, in sublet apartments, and over the phone to gasp at such remarkable events as Susannah's move to the suburbs; Eileen's decision to take a job in a card shop as her first play opens on Broadway; and Dee's move uptown and her subsequent devastating isolation; and to wonder over such oddities as the Mask Woman, the girlfriend who never speaks, the in-laws who laugh at everything, and so on. Urban fears—including dreams of being found dead in one's apartment (``The problem,'' says Liz, ``is I have such a good deal on this place that the dream isn't just anxiety, it's prophecy'') and fantasies of escape via professional success, marriage and/or children, or a permanent apartment—distract from dreaded moments of calm reflection. As Rosemary admits, ``There's a special sort of pang you get when you realize that you aren't going to learn seven languages, and that there are countries you won't ever visit, and that somehow through the years you've turned into a specific sort of person.'' On the other hand, ``Think of all the things that could happen at a party.'' An accurate chronicle, wittily rendered.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-394-57638-1
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1991
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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