Masterful storytelling and memorable characters combine to give us a wise and gently truthful take on a highly charged...
Another splendidly nuanced tale of contemporary family life from the always expert Trollope (Other People’s Children, 1999, etc.).
After a seven-year secret liaison with Merrion Palmer, a clever London lawyer, 62-year-old Guy Stockdale, a distinguished judge with an irreproachable reputation, has decided to leave his wife, Laura, and marry his much younger mistress. (As usual, Trollope puts a fresh spin on a hackneyed situation by making the husband rather than the wife the protagonist.) Guy’s decision prompts all concerned to question old loyalties, the past, and the meaning of love itself. Laura, who has felt for years that she paid too high a price in marrying, refuses to sell the family home, where she’s created a beautiful garden, and insists that her eldest and favorite son, Simon, a public-interest lawyer, act as her counsel. Simon, married to Carrie and father of Jack, Rachel, and Emma, is torn between his loyalty to his parents and the needs of his own family. Meanwhile, younger brother Alan, gay and presently unattached, worries that their mother is asking too much of the already overworked Simon. And the three grandchildren resent the strain Laura is imposing on their parents. As the legal proceedings get underway, Carrie, angry at Laura's obstinacy and dependency on Simon, invites Merrion to meet the family. The visit is a success, and the rest of the Stockdales are reconciled to Guy’s choice. But Laura continues to be difficult, Simon remains torn, and Jack, hurting after his first high-school romance ends, seeks comfort from his grandfather. Merrion and Guy feel the demands of kin complicating what had seemed a simple and perfect love.
Masterful storytelling and memorable characters combine to give us a wise and gently truthful take on a highly charged subject.Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-670-89150-9
Page Count: 293
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
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
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
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