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THE LOST GET-BACK BOOGIE

Bulging with virile prose, this good-hearted novel grabs you by the collar, roughs you up a bit, then buys you a drink afterwards. At times much too reminiscent of Kerouac, Kesey and McGuane, Burke (author of last year's The Convict, a collection of stories) summons up a surprisingly original voice in his butt-kicking, beer-swilling narrator—a self-described "hillbilly guitar picker" who just wants to "take it easy and cool and slide with it." Unfortunately, Iry Paret's past won't allow him such a laidback life. Ever since he knifed a guy in a barroom brawl, and served time for manslaughter on a work gang in his native Louisiana, Iry's found trouble everywhere he goes. In search of a "safe dawn," he heads for Montana to begin work on a ranch owned by the family of a jailhouse pal. Himself recently sprung, Buddy Riordan seems destined to be a two-time loser, what with the local sheriff hoping to see him and Iry back behind bars. Days after his arrival, Iry realizes he's stepped into someone else's trouble. Riordan's stubborn and stoic old man has won a temporary injunction against a polluting mill, the same mill that employs four hundred locals. Thus be. gins a series of beatings and burnings which Iry refuses to let go unrevenged; he's coaxed on by Riordan's brother-in-law, a drunken academic who glorifies crime in the name of revolution. While Buddy leads a life of "hangovers, whorehouses, and beer-glass brawls," Iry prefers to croon "gooder than grits" in perfect imitation of Hank Williams, though both of them can't shake "the dirty knowledge of the criminal world." Iry survives the violent denouement of the novel, avoids jail, and settles back to enjoy what Burke evokes so well—the natural beauty of Montana. Lots of true grit and a little tenderness combine to make this an absorbing tale of modern life on the range.

Pub Date: Nov. 21, 1986

ISBN: 1615555838

Page Count: -

Publisher: Louisiana State Univ.

Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1986

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

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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MAGIC HOUR

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

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