A mystery that’s epic in length, but not in content.
Fictional anthropologist Andrea Bourne’s convoluted life.
This Australian epic covers many characters and diverse walks of life, but it focuses on Bourne, a feminist lesbian anthropology professor in the ’70s who has aspirations to political behind-the-scenes power. Much is glossed over in Bourne’s rise to fame–with little to no effort, she earns a doctorate for a thesis written on faulty material, a full-time professorial position at a prestigious university, international awards (including a possible Nobel Peace Prize) and a powerful position in the “Movement” and the “True Believer’s Party.” Thankfully, after trudging through half the book, the reader is transported into the 1730s for a 200-page, multiple-century journey through the intricate history of the aboriginals, Australian settlers and American soldiers whose lives connected to create the past and present that directly affect Bourne. These flashbacks provide more passion, depth and interest than the main tale they support, and readers may forgive the stilted narration and raw storytelling, given the largely aboriginal cast’s primitive thoughts. The shallow characters sweat, gorge and drink their way through a Pepto-Bismol commercial of nausea, diarrhea and constricted bowels. Rather than describe their emotions, the author shows his characters wetting themselves when afraid and defecating on tables as part of a raucous party. Elsewhere, McNaught’s descriptions can be so specific that they disturb the language’s flow–a plane is not a plane but a G73 Mallard every time it’s mentioned, and a cloud is referenced as cumulous several times in a paragraph. Mundane actions with little plot relevance or character significance are described in droning detail. McNaught is obviously a better anthropologist of South Pacific aboriginals than his main character, Bourne, but his writing could use work.
A mystery that’s epic in length, but not in content.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1-4092-0439-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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