Like a consummate magician, Scott (Arrogance, 1990; Various Antidotes, 1994; etc.) conjures up a magic domain in rural New York where a large house, its strange contents, and a white Arctic owl enthrall—and then finally expel—the house's inhabitants. Built in the early 1900s on two thousand remote acres by Henry Craxton, the ``Henry Ford of Natural History,'' Manikin was both a home for his collection of stuffed animals and an expensive indulgence. Nothing was spared in building the house or landscaping the grounds, and a large staff was employed to maintain both in style. Craxton soon died, however, and his widow, fortunes much reduced, lived permanently at the Manikin, while the Craxtons' only surviving son, Hal, dissipated his mother's money in continuous travel. The novel begins in 1927 with Mrs. Craxton alive but frail, and the servants secure in their isolated kingdom. When Junket, the teenaged son of estate manager Lore, innocently shoots a white Arctic owl, Scott subtly introduces the somewhat gothic but still intelligent note that's at the heart of the story. The owl, mounted by the malevolent Boggio, Craxton's resident master taxidermist, is set in a sinister pose—it appears to be screaming—in the master bedroom. Boggio has his reasons, which become clear at the end, but the owl's death begins the unravelling of the magic kingdom. A young woman seduces Peg, the housekeeper's daughter, who's then raped by an intruder; Mrs. Craxton changes her will and dies; Hal returns, is driven away by scandal, and then reappears only to evict the servants, who, away from the Manikin, find the happiness and love denied the cursed house and its owner. A richly atmospheric and literary gothic romp, with settings as realistic and perfectly rendered as Craxton's animals: a novel that splendidly reinforces Scott's reputation as an original and imaginative writer.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-8050-3974-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1995
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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