A distinguished successor to Houston’s superb fictionalization of the Donner Party ordeal, Snow Mountain Passage (2001), and...
California during the Gold Rush and Hawaii on the verge of annexation as a U.S. territory provide a rich dual backdrop for Houston’s colorful ninth novel.
Its narrative is also a double story. A contemporary one, set in northern California in 1987, concerns the search conducted by radio talk-show host Sheridan “Dan” Brody into his family’s patchwork origins—after elderly Rosa Wadell, the grandmother Dan has never met, calls in on the air and begins the unearthing of their people’s fabulous history. Rosa’s story funnels into the one contained in the daily journal kept faithfully by her mother, Nancy Callahan. This tale is in turn linked to the well-known story of the 1891 visit to San Francisco made by Hawaii’s last king, David Kalakaua—on which journey, Dan learns, the monarch was accompanied by his “standard bearer” and consort (and, presumably, lover) Nani Keala: aka Nancy Callahan. The tumbling revelations include a wrenching portrayal of Nani/Nancy (“part white, part Indian, part Hawaiian”) adrift among several cultures; the story of her father Keala, an intrepid adventurer who left the Islands branded with the mark of Cain and found his mission and his fortune by joining the westward march and empire-building of gold-hunter John Sutter; and the increasingly complex negotiations between the cagey King David and representatives of Peabody Trade and Maritime, the company that embodies American pursuit of economic gain through the acquisition of foreign resources. The pivotal event here is the recovery of a missing sound recording of the Hawaiian monarch’s voice, made during his American visit: a priceless historical artifact, and a literal incarnation of his culture’s worship of communal values and respect for its dead—a plaintive reminder that “all our stories must be told.”
A distinguished successor to Houston’s superb fictionalization of the Donner Party ordeal, Snow Mountain Passage (2001), and compelling evidence that he’s one of the best historical novelists working today.Pub Date: March 26, 2007
ISBN: 1-4000-4202-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2007
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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