A skillfully written novel, romantic yet tough-minded, in a beautiful setting.
In Bow’s novel, a young Canadian woman confronts family history and future choices on the isle of Crete.
After her mother dies, 25-year-old Callisto “Cally” Armstrong makes a discovery in her mother’s dressing table. Folded into a secret compartment is a “Cruise to Crete” pamphlet with her mother’s wedding rings taped to it and the shakily written words “For Cally.” Her mother was born in Crete, but Cally knows almost nothing else about her past. In Crete, Cally’s doubts grow about a planned new job and so does her curiosity about the island and her grandmother’s role in the resistance movement of World War II. Then there’s Oliver, a handsome American, although—as a restaurant waiter warns—“Tonight he dances. Tomorrow? Gone.” Cally’s stay becomes indefinitely lengthened as she lives as simply as possible, exploring family history, Crete and its people, and her deepening feelings for Oliver—but also a new sense of independence. Discovering her grandmother’s admirable bravery, she also finally learns her mother’s heartbreaking story. Bow (The Oak Island Affair, 2007, etc.) shows an accomplished and lyrical, but not overblown, style that is tied to the history, landscape and culture of Crete, as when Cally wrestles with initial doubts: “The day’s first light, piercing the clouds to lay patterns on the rolling surface of the sea, belonged to Zeus. But still shimmering with last night’s love, Aphrodite, ruthless as ebony, old as art, danced a whole sequence of choices above the morning waves.” Bow’s descriptions of Crete’s natural beauty are vivid and evocative. But there’s more to the book than lovely descriptions of food, landscape and romance. The World War II history is harrowing; Oliver’s Gulf War experience adds a dimension. An obviously right decision becomes the wrong decision on further reflection. Important questions like whether it’s possible to avoid being implicated in the modern world’s sins are thoughtfully considered. Perhaps Cally is luckier than she ought to be, but then, her mother was unluckier.
A skillfully written novel, romantic yet tough-minded, in a beautiful setting.Pub Date: March 17, 2014
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Iguana Books
Review Posted Online: Feb. 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
Too much drama at the end detracts from a finely wrought and subtle conundrum.
Ware (In A Dark, Dark Wood, 2015) offers up a classic “paranoid woman” story with a modern twist in this tense, claustrophobic mystery.
Days before departing on a luxury cruise for work, travel journalist Lo Blacklock is the victim of a break-in. Though unharmed, she ends up locked in her own room for several hours before escaping; as a result, she is unable to sleep. By the time she comes onboard the Aurora, Lo is suffering from severe sleep deprivation and possibly even PTSD, so when she hears a big splash from the cabin next door in the middle of the night, “the kind of splash made by a body hitting water,” she can’t prove to security that anything violent has actually occurred. To make matters stranger, there's no record of any passenger traveling in the cabin next to Lo’s, even though Lo herself saw a woman there and even borrowed makeup from her before the first night’s dinner party. Reeling from her own trauma, and faced with proof that she may have been hallucinating, Lo continues to investigate, aided by her ex-boyfriend Ben (who's also writing about the cruise), fighting desperately to find any shred of evidence that she may be right. The cast of characters, their conversations, and the luxurious but confining setting all echo classic Agatha Christie; in fact, the structure of the mystery itself is an old one: a woman insists murder has occurred, everyone else says she’s crazy. But Lo is no wallflower; she is a strong and determined modern heroine who refuses to doubt the evidence of her own instincts. Despite this successful formula, and a whole lot of slowly unraveling tension, the end is somehow unsatisfying. And the newspaper and social media inserts add little depth.
Too much drama at the end detracts from a finely wrought and subtle conundrum.Pub Date: July 19, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5011-3293-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Scout Press/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: May 2, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2016
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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