Michener's shortest novel is his timeliest as well, a slick, wide-eyed paean to the Constitution that uses the Iran-contra scandal as a springboard to chronicle one family's historic passion for the American heritage. Michener names his hero Lt. Col. Norman Starr, but we can be sure it's a North Start that shines here; Start (who narrates) has just been called to testify before Congress about shady Nicaraguan contra dealings, and he lets on at once that he's "heard from everyone that [Lt. Col. Ollie North] was a fine dedicated patriot." And so is Starr and so were his ancestors, as we learn from Starr's ruminations on seven generations of patriotic predecessors—captivating historical vignettes forming the meat of the book and woven skillfully within Starr's talks with his loving wife and loyal attorney about whether to plead the Fifth during the upcoming Congressional probe. Starr's thoughts harken back first to distant ancestor Jared Start, Virginian farmer and signer of the Declaration of Independence, whose support of a strong federation propelled his son, Simon, to attend the Constitutional Convention and to sign the new document after meetings with Ben Franklin, James Madison, etc. (detailed in snippets from Simon's diary). Thus the Starrs march through US history—a Supreme Court Judge, suffragette, and war hero among them—all intimately involved with the Constitution as it evolves, is amended and reamended. And so it is that at novel's end Norman Starr, bathed in his family's Constitutional splendor, disregards his attorney's advice to plead the Fifth: for in "a blinding flash" he realizes that his job is to protect the nation, not himself, and that "that superb document will be effective only if each new generation believes in it—and keeps it renewed." Michener packs an impressive amount of historical drama into this slim novel while avoiding his usual textbook pedagogy (although the work is padded out at the end via inclusion of the entire Constitution); and if some readers will find Starr/Michener's flag-waving a tough pill to swallow ("the free world must not sit back and let the Reds run rampant"), many (500,000 first printing) will enjoy Michener's birthday present to the Constitution on its bicentennial.
Pub Date: Sept. 14, 1987
ISBN: 0749319747
Page Count: 174
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Sept. 30, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1987
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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