As usual, a pleasant and legal buzz all the way through.
A Wyoming cowboy on the lam drifts into the good life of the Gulf Stream in the latest stream-of-semi-conscious opus from the Pied Piper of Parrotheads (A Pirate Looks at Fifty, 1998, etc.).
Having incurred the wrath of his boss—wealthy but evil poodle-farmer Thelma Barton—when he justifiably threw a coffee table through her picture window, Rocky Mountain range rider Tully Mars harkens to the sound of the surf in his lucky conch shell and heads for the Gulf Coast to hide out from the law. Bringing only his quarter-horse Mr. Twain, a few amulets, a couple of his favorite artworks, short-sleeve shirts and flip-flops, Tully zig- zags through Arkansas and Alabama, barely evading Thelma’s sadistic (but not too sadistic, since nothing really truly bad happens in Buffettworld) bounty hunters headed ever southerly. There’s time for a pleasant fling with beautiful Arkansan waitress Donna Kay Dunbar, but Tully can’t commit. Not with a bounty on his head. And besides, sunny tempered fate has him headed for the Caribbean and an expatriate life working on a fishing camp in a one-time pirate village near the Yucatan. Life on the lam is pretty good: all the fresh fish you can eat, cheeseburgers whenever you’re in the mood, and, every now and then but not so it’s a problem, really good Jamaican weed. Into this perfect world sails the Lucretia, an antique schooner under the command of Tully's future employer and tutor Cleopatra Highbourne. Ms Highbourne, a well-preserved centenarian, has a thing for lighthouses. She's on a mission to find a 19th-century fresnel lens, the critical feature of the lighthouse she intends to restore on Cayo Loco in the Bahamas. Will Tully join her and find serenity in the process? Sure thing. But there will be a side trip to Belize for some world-class sex first. Oh, and those bounty hunters are still on his trail.
As usual, a pleasant and legal buzz all the way through.Pub Date: Nov. 30, 2004
ISBN: 0-316-90845-2
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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