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
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
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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