News anchor Lehrer's ninth novel (Fine Lines, 1994, etc.) is set in his own backyard—in the twin contests between the ethics of the journalist as neutral reporter and as responsible citizen, and between journalism and the political process. It's an election year again, but this time only one presidential debate has been scheduled between the two candidates—Paul Green, a lackluster, liberal Democratic governor; and David Donald Meredith, an ultraconservative, fundamentalist racist who has surged ahead in the latest polls. In the hours before the debate in Colonial Williamsburg, Mike Howley, a respected, old-school reporter moderating the panel of three other journalists, comes into possession of documents revealing the detestable Meredith as a man of uncontrollable temper who has a history of physically and verbally abusing women and children. Without verifying the allegations, Howley gets his fellow panelists to abandon the pre-agreed format and sandbag Meredith with questions about abuse. The result: The Republican candidate loses his cool, stalks off the stage after 28 minutes—and throws the election to Paul Greene. Did the "Williamsburg Four" abandon their journalistic standards or act courageously to protect their country from an evil fool? And, having done so, do they have an obligation to say how and why? The tale is narrated by self-righteous investigative reporter Tom Chapman, who easily justifies using bribery, innuendo, misrepresentation, and other investigative chicanery in the name of truth, and who "reports" in new-journalism, novelistic form how he discovered what really went on in the panel selection process, how Howley got the documents and seduced the others to go along, and what happened to them all afterward. Near the close, Chapman's effort to interview Meredith at the Music of the Messiah Life and Living Center in Tashobi, Oklahoma, where all communication is sung, is especially memorable. Broad satire, but entertaining—Lehrer finds plenty of recognizable targets in the heart of the news business.
Pub Date: Sept. 7, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-44159-X
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995
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
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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