Based on his experience as an educator and on the anecdotes of colleagues, Wintermote explores the trials and tribulations of the first five years of teaching in his debut novel.
Jim Fisher is embarking on his third career as an English teacher at the newly built Manicomio High School. On his first day, the tone for the next five years is set as Mr. Fisher must contend with a student drinking beer in class while others mouth off, call him "dude" and come to class unprepared. It is clear from the outset the author has enough familiarity with his subject to authentically capture the experiences of a novice teacher. The novel is filled with incidents that seem unbelievable, yet one has no doubt they either happened to Wintermote himself or someone he knew. When a cocky star wrestler fails to do the work on an assignment, his parents only make excuses for their son, and unwilling Fisher lets the boy make up the presentation. But he makes it clear that lying for their son and not holding him accountable for his actions is more detrimental to him than not being able to wrestle. The idea that parents are as responsible for the failings of their children as much as the children themselves is prevalent throughout. It is clear that Wintermote sees a lot wrong with the educational system. From the lowering of standards to ineffective administrators, the author uses this novel as a soapbox. While one may agree with his assessments, the novel would feel more rounded if it included a deeper exploration of Fisher’s personal life. The chapters spent on his failed relationship with a fellow teacher and his courtship of an unavailable neighbor add depth and complexity to Fisher’s character. In the classroom, Fisher never fails to get the upper hand on a student and rarely feels like he did not make the right choice in any given situation. In his fifth year of teaching, a new administrator, intent on making it easier for students to do the bare minimum to pass, may lead to the end of Fisher’s tenure at Manicomio High. An in-depth, yet underdeveloped, look at the life of an educator struggling against unwilling students and falling standards to teach the best he can.
Pub Date: Jan. 19, 2010
ISBN: 978-1449068974
Page Count: 348
Publisher: AuthorHouse
Review Posted Online: March 26, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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