A political satire wanders off course after a promising start.
A small city mayoral race takes some strange turns when a freakish creature dominates the race.
Former journalist Gray Davenport’s life is about as exciting as his nondescript name. Campaign consultant to a perennial also-ran who's floundering again in a three-man race for mayor of Grand River, a pollution-drenched West Coast city whose government is controlled by a cabal of shadowy businessmen, pulling the strings from the local gated community, he’s drowning in self-pity, not least because his marriage to an aspiring (if untalented) artist, fond of Jackson Pollock–like paint splatters, is crumbling. When Reason Wilder, an 8-foot-tall candidate who bears a striking resemblance to a famous 19th-century literary monster, captures the imagination of Grand River’s citizens, with his vaguely populist claims to offer “A way of the people. A way that reflects us all,” Gray sets out to unravel the mystery behind his appeal. That effort (and Gray’s emotional life) is complicated after the alluring Breeze Wellington, a marketing expert with a previous life as a porn star, appears in town and thrusts herself into a campaign that’s soon noteworthy for its deception and betrayal. Ponepinto’s (Curtain Calls, 2015) style doesn’t lack wit or an apt turn of phrase capable of evoking an audible chuckle, as when he describes the “astrologically-themed downtown grid” of Grand River that produces a street named “Cancer Boulevard,” but those talents only carry this uneven novel so far. There are sufficient twists to keep the plot energized, but the pallid protagonist eventually becomes more irritating than sympathetic. Ponepinto has some definite ideas about the flaws of the democratic process—notably, how easy it is to manipulate public opinion—but he wobbles between satirizing the shortcomings of political life and exploring the science-fiction elements of Reason’s existence, including the machinations of the corrupt genius who created him, without fully committing to either story. That structural flaw becomes especially apparent as the novel lurches toward its bizarre climax.
A political satire wanders off course after a promising start.Pub Date: March 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9984092-4-5
Page Count: 300
Publisher: 7.13 Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 11, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2018
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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SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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