Scott (Blair, 1989) appears to have misplaced his sense of humor in this slight novel, which would more appropriately be titled Men and Women Who Think About Sex Too Much. The unconvincing opening section, ``Christopher Houghton,'' shows Avery in France with his wife, Gillian. He claims they have not spoken in three weeks, and apparently they are not satisfying each other sexually either, since Avery is so excited by the mere sight of a waitress's childlike hands that he must rush to the restaurant bathroom and masturbate. In Paris, a friend introduces Avery to the red-haired Catherine, who inquires about his poetry and then, at another meeting, gives him an inviting kiss. Avery returns home to Melbourne with his wife and begins a correspondence with Catherine, whose letters overflow with silly sexual adventures, including an unappealing description of a young man watching her urinate all over herself in a bathtub. The following third of the book is narrated by Sorel Atherton, whose husband, Chris, has suffered a stroke. When Sorel reads the manuscript of his recent novella, she finds to her horror that Chris (a.k.a., Avery) has thinly disguised their recent trip to France—i.e., the book's first section is the novella in question, Sorel is the real Gillian, and she now knows that her husband felt an intense dislike for her before lapsing into unconsciousness. Feeling betrayed, Sorel pressures Chris's colleague, Jeremy Fayrfax, for additional information and discovers that Jeremy has been more involved in the affair with Catherine than was initially apparent. Jeremy narrates the third and final section, which provides yet another twist in a winding road of dexterous surprises. It's hard to work up any interest, however. Scott manipulates his characters with the skill of a grandmaster, but fails to imbue them with any distinguishing traits aside from their sexual appetites. Even the eroticism grows tedious.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1994
ISBN: 0-393-03683-9
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1994
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of...
Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest (Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State.
Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate. Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully. Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive. Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions. Tully becomes Seattle’s answer to Oprah. She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. But Kate’s buttons are fully depressed by pitched battles over slutwear and curfews with teenaged Marah, who idolizes her godmother Tully. In an improbable twist, Tully invites Kate and Marah to resolve their differences on her show, only to blindside Kate by accusing her, on live TV, of overprotecting Marah. The BFFs are sundered. Tully’s latest attempt to salvage Cloud fails: The incorrigible, now geriatric hippie absconds once more. Just as Kate develops a spine, she’s given some devastating news. Will the friends reconcile before it’s too late?
Dated sermonizing on career versus motherhood, and conflict driven by characters’ willed helplessness, sap this tale of poignancy.Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2008
ISBN: 978-0-312-36408-3
Page Count: 496
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2007
BOOK TO SCREEN
A presold prefab blockbuster, what with King's Carrie hitting the moviehouses, Salem's Lot being lensed, The Shining itself sold to Warner Bros. and tapped as a Literary Guild full selection, NAL paperback, etc. (enough activity to demand an afterlife to consummate it all).
The setting is The Overlook, a palatial resort on a Colorado mountain top, snowbound and closed down for the long, long winter. Jack Torrance, a booze-fighting English teacher with a history of violence, is hired as caretaker and, hoping to finish a five-act tragedy he's writing, brings his wife Wendy and small son Danny to the howling loneliness of the half-alive and mad palazzo. The Overlook has a gruesome past, scenes from which start popping into the present in various suites and the ballroom. At first only Danny, gifted with second sight (he's a "shiner"), can see them; then the whole family is being zapped by satanic forces. The reader needs no supersight to glimpse where the story's going as King's formula builds to a hotel reeling with horrors during Poesque New Year's Eve revelry and confetti outta nowhere....
Back-prickling indeed despite the reader's unwillingness at being mercilessly manipulated.
Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1976
ISBN: 0385121679
Page Count: 453
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1976
PERSPECTIVES
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