Mackin (Dreams of Empire, 1996, etc.) offers a deft combination of historical fiction and ghost story, as well as a...
A journalist researching the story of a real-life 19th-century spiritualist, Maggie Fox, may have to contend with the ghost of her old lover.
Living alone in a rambling old house in upstate New York, Helen West is mourning in almost Victorian fashion the death of her lover Jude. When she is asked to write a long biographical article on Maggie Fox, she accepts, since the subject of spiritualism, and the Fox sisters in particular, was a favorite of Jude's. At first appalled at Maggie's duplicity, she slowly begins to crave for herself a connection with the dead. The story flips between Helen's narrative and the life of Maggie Fox—a fascinating piece of history in itself. Farm children amusing themselves on a winter night, Maggie and Leah Fox created an international craze, and what some at the time termed a new religion. By dexterously cracking their toe joints to produce mysterious rappings, they claimed to speak with the dead, and soon people were willing to pay to hear those conversations. Under the guidance of her evil older sister, Maggie set up shop in New York, where she soon became rich and famous (her clients included Horace Greeley and Mary Todd Lincoln). But she was also a prisoner of Leah's domination and of the laudanum she was given to keep her in line. As Helen becomes more sympathetic to Maggie, strange doings make her wonder whether the ghost of Jude has come to her—a welcome apparition, although poorly timed: Helen is now attempting a new relationship after three lonely years mourning Jude, who, she discovers, was not the man he seemed.
Mackin (Dreams of Empire, 1996, etc.) offers a deft combination of historical fiction and ghost story, as well as a compelling meditation on the power of the past to alter the present.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-26997-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
