Christopher’s blind belief in his relatives and himself can make the exploration plot feel a bit trite compared to its many...
When a young man embarks on a quest in the South American jungle to find the physical and emotional remains of his explorer great-grandfather who disappeared 72 years earlier, he discovers an unbelievable truth.
An earnest romp through the Amazon, this adventure is delightfully didactic at its core, turning into a did-you-know exploration of every stone, native people and ancient word along the way. Occasionally the author bogs down the action with facts, but the ride is largely endearing and compelling. In his search for his great-grandfather, Christopher Giordano meets and falls in love with Shama, who intrigues him with her knowledge of all things ancient and mystical. The exotic setting is fascinating, and fans of thrillers and travel writing alike will feel at home in this whirlwind academic romp that’s full of ancient factoids and trivia that move the plot—and the reader’s thoughts—forward. Daniels’ tale improves upon formulaic thrillers, however, with the centrality of the protagonist’s relationship to his family and newfound loves. Christopher embarks on this dangerous mission with the lone conviction of his heart. Albeit a little fantastical, he eventually finds his grandfather in the depths of the jungle, though not before nearly dying during the journey. Christopher arrives through the Gateway, a portal that takes him back through the centuries. The supernatural element is somewhat oversimplified, but it makes for a fascinating comparison of different eras, and Christopher is so eagerly interested in his adventure that even this unusual development feels earned. Each moment seems romantic, and not simply because of the exotic backdrop of ruins and rainforest—the history and relationships are as poignant as they are powerful.
Christopher’s blind belief in his relatives and himself can make the exploration plot feel a bit trite compared to its many action-adventure peers, but the young man’s heartfelt quest to find and create his family is richly engaging.Pub Date: Aug. 27, 2010
ISBN: 978-1450248914
Page Count: 420
Publisher: iUniverse
Review Posted Online: Nov. 16, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as...
An unlikely love story set amid the horrors of a Nazi death camp.
Based on real people and events, this debut novel follows Lale Sokolov, a young Slovakian Jew sent to Auschwitz in 1942. There, he assumes the heinous task of tattooing incoming Jewish prisoners with the dehumanizing numbers their SS captors use to identify them. When the Tätowierer, as he is called, meets fellow prisoner Gita Furman, 17, he is immediately smitten. Eventually, the attraction becomes mutual. Lale proves himself an operator, at once cagey and courageous: As the Tätowierer, he is granted special privileges and manages to smuggle food to starving prisoners. Through female prisoners who catalog the belongings confiscated from fellow inmates, Lale gains access to jewels, which he trades to a pair of local villagers for chocolate, medicine, and other items. Meanwhile, despite overwhelming odds, Lale and Gita are able to meet privately from time to time and become lovers. In 1944, just ahead of the arrival of Russian troops, Lale and Gita separately leave the concentration camp and experience harrowingly close calls. Suffice it to say they both survive. To her credit, the author doesn’t flinch from describing the depravity of the SS in Auschwitz and the unimaginable suffering of their victims—no gauzy evasions here, as in Boy in the Striped Pajamas. She also manages to raise, if not really explore, some trickier issues—the guilt of those Jews, like the tattooist, who survived by doing the Nazis’ bidding, in a sense betraying their fellow Jews; and the complicity of those non-Jews, like the Slovaks in Lale’s hometown, who failed to come to the aid of their beleaguered countrymen.
The writing is merely serviceable, and one can’t help but wish the author had found a way to present her material as nonfiction. Still, this is a powerful, gut-wrenching tale that is hard to shake off.Pub Date: Sept. 4, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-06-279715-5
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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