by Jeff Gomez ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2019
A convincing fictional exploration of human optimism and weakness.
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Two Mexican American workers pursue dreams of independence in this reimagining of John Steinbeck’s classic 1937 novella Of Mice and Men.
On a warm spring day, two men arrive at a lemon ranch in Saticoy, California. Juanito Sanchez is much gentler than his huge stature might indicate. After the death of his aunt, who raised him, he’s traveling to Los Angeles, where his uncle runs a small grocery store. Because he’s intellectually disabled, his aunt entrusted his inheritance money to his friend and travel companion, Tomás Delgado. Tomás is sharp-witted and perceptive, but he’s unable to resist a gamble. He insists to Juanito that their lives will be better soon, as Juanito’s uncle has promised them both employment and shelter. Juanito yearns for solitude and stability, and Tomás looks forward to the freedoms that such a job would give him. To that end, he reassures Juanito that they’ll head to LA as soon as they earn enough wages as migrant fruit pickers. However, during their first week in the lemon groves, Tomás takes an interest in Celedonia, the lovely wife of the boss’s son, which creates tensions that lead to tragedy. Gomez (Our Noise, 1995, etc.) excels at creating a sense of impending catastrophe as Tomás and Juanito’s situation worsens. Tomás is a complicated and engaging character who resents the limitations imposed on him by white society and who’s haunted by his wartime naval experience. The narrative parallels to Of Mice and Men are handled well, as the author uses many motifs from the original work to very different ends. The story exposes the plight of Mexican American workers of the era through conversations that address the abysmal conditions on migrant farms and the injustices of a mass deportation effort. In this way, Gomez gives a classic tale new life and sheds light on an underacknowledged chapter of American history.
A convincing fictional exploration of human optimism and weakness.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-73311-280-2
Page Count: 154
Publisher: Harrow Books
Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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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