None
An exquisitely mounted, immaculately designed fable in a jeweled medieval setting that pierces to the heart of an ancient scholarly/spiritual dilemma: Should one live within a world of faith with its invisible perfections—or only in the world as it is seen and sensed, of things as they are? The author portrays the conflict with venerable theological dialectic and an inventive use of the enduring myth of the wolf-raised child. Quoting St. Augustine to the effect that ``morning knowledge is different from evening knowledge,'' the gentle scholar Benedix explains the problem to Severo, the cardinal prince of their Church-owned island: in the knowledge of angels, morning knowledge deals with ``the nature of a straight line; evening knowledge is knowing that no line in the world is really straight.'' Severo has come to the monastery for help in converting an avowed atheist, Palinor, a stranger from a far country—handsome, highly intelligent and companionable. Severo is determined to save Palinor from a heretic's death. Meanwhile, a wild creature raised by wolves is captured, and Severo sends her to a convent to be tamed—but with the stern stipulation that she hear nothing of God. Will then the denial of God-knowledge in a child of nature—proving that knowledge of God is revealed and not innate—save Palinor? While the wolf child is (outwardly, at least) ``humanized,'' the cardinal, the famous scholar, and the atheist meet in a paradisiacal setting of greenery, fountains, and colonnades to discuss philosophy and theology. But looming, gathering savagery and horror, is the Inquisition, about to bring death to one and, for others, the absence of angels. At the close, the wolf girl sees—without understanding—the start of an inevitable conquest. With timeless personalities, grounded firmly within the hot windstorms of an on-going human conundrum: a brilliantly crafted, haunting tale—the author's second novel for adults (after a mystery, The Wyndham Case, 1993).
None NonePub Date: March 28, 1994
ISBN: 0-395-68666-0
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1994
IN THE NEWS
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
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