Ever so slightly redundant and attenuated, but most readers will be charmed nonetheless. Very entertaining indeed.
In a wry 1997 novel, his fourth in English translation, clever Belgian author Toussaint (Making Love, 2004, etc.) tackles the omnipresence of television in contemporary culture.
The unnamed narrator is an art historian working in Berlin while his pregnant partner Delon and his young son enjoy an Italian vacation. He’s studying “the relations between political power and the arts in sixteenth-century Italy,” specifically, the balance of power as embodied in the relationship between Renaissance master Titian Vecellio and Emperor Charles V, his patron and portrait subject. The narrator’s days are taken up with researching Titian, wandering about Berlin, swimming at public pools, and—at first haphazardly, later compulsively—watching television. Toussaint gradually paints an endearingly funny portrait of a mildly obsessive introvert (a Gallic Walter Mitty, if you will) who’s “paralyzed” by interruptions to his good intentions. Upstairs neighbors in his apartment building enlist him to water their jungle of houseplants while they’re away, and his benign botanical neglect provokes a hilarious, Chaplinesque scene upon their return. His friendship with a bohemian scholar-translator involves him in several inconvenient brief encounters, including a visit to a family absorbed in viewing Baywatch that gives the narrator the distinct impression that all of Berlin is so occupied. Meanwhile, Toussaint’s pleasingly loose plot assails our hero with mounting evidence that TV infiltrates his every waking moment. (Note, as he does, his subject Titian’s initials.) The decision to stop watching altogether severely tests his inner resources, and even his nearest and dearest innocently reinforce TV’s hold on him: When Delon and his son return from vacation, they bring him a VCR as a present. The story ends quite wonderfully with a moment of subdued resignation that’s perhaps best described as an anti-visionary experience.
Ever so slightly redundant and attenuated, but most readers will be charmed nonetheless. Very entertaining indeed.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2004
ISBN: 1-56478-372-3
Page Count: 168
Publisher: Dalkey Archive
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
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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