Luke Warren doesn’t dance with wolves, but he does practically everything else with them—eat raw meat, hunt, howl and endure...
Wolf expert languishes in a coma while his family debates his fate, in Picoult’s latest.
Luke Warren doesn’t dance with wolves, but he does practically everything else with them—eat raw meat, hunt, howl and endure bites to establish trust. Since he first befriended captive wolves in a small New Hampshire theme park, he’s sought to join the pack. In fact, Luke’s lupine family, not to mention the fruits of his passion—an Animal Planet series and bestselling book—have effectively supplanted his blood relations. His wife, Georgie, divorced him and is now remarried to a lawyer, Joe. Luke’s son, Edward, a gay man, fled for Thailand at 18, after his attempt to come out to his father had unintended consequences. Only daughter Cara remains faithful, even accompanying Luke on some of his wolf adventures. Now, however, Luke’s ex-family has been uncomfortably reunited by a tragedy: Driving home after rescuing Cara from a drunken teenage party, Luke crashes his car. Cara, 17, suffers a shoulder injury, but Luke sustains severe brain damage. Edward is summoned home—as the only adult next of kin, he must make medical decisions for his father. Luke lies in a vegetative state with little hope of recovery, and his license indicates he’s a willing organ donor. Edward wants to terminate life support—before leaving years ago he was given a handwritten directive indicating his father had anticipated just such a scenario and wanted no extraordinary measures. Cara insists her father will awaken. The alternating voices of the main characters detail how Luke’s human family broke up, and how he was able to ingratiate himself with wolves as an itinerant male, a “lone wolf” recruited by a pack to replace a lost member. The thoroughly researched wolf lore is fascinating; the rest of the story is a more conventional soap opera of hospital, and later courtroom histrionics.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4391-0274-9
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: Jan. 8, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2012
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
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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