A wide-ranging historical romance—the first novel by a historian hitherto known for his two books about the Rockefeller family—hearkens back to the American Revolution and the complex figure of Benedict Arnold, renowned among military peers as “the very genius of war” while subsequently reviled as the very apotheosis of treachery and deceit. Harr’s efficient narrative (marred only by early pages weighted down with awkwardly introduced historical background information) shifts adroitly between civilian life on the home front (particularly Philadelphia, which eventually, briefly falls under British control) and the various battlefields where Arnold’s reputation for tactical mastery was earned. There are especially vivid accounts of the battles of Lake Champlain’s Valcourt Bay (a naval encounter in which Arnold simulated a trap, then gracefully “escaped” it), New York’s Fort Stanwix (where Arnold ingeniously co-opted enemy General “Gentleman Johnny” Burgoyne’s solidarity with Mohawk and Seneca Indians), and—a critical turning-point—Saratoga. Numerous historical figures appear and reappear, including a morally conflicted (though ever dutiful) Commander George Washington, a politically astute Alexander Hamilton, and—arguably the story’s secondary protagonist—British Major John Andre, a cultivated, stoical, and thoroughly decent man whose fate becomes inexorably linked with Arnold’s once the latter has turned his back on the “pompous” US Congress that undervalues and underestimates him and reluctantly changed his allegiance. Harr neither idealizes Arnold’s belligerent charisma nor soft-pedals his intemperate vanity; the result is the most compelling of a series of characterizations that incarnate, in moving human form, the volatile emotions of an emergent nation divided by the warring claims of loyalty and independence. The novels of Kenneth Roberts (such as Arundel and Rabble in Arms, both from the 1930s) remain the standard for fiction portraying this era. But Harr’s ambitious debut is an informed, dramatic, and well-woven contribution to a genre that seems to be, and shouldn’t be, out of fashion these days.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1999
ISBN: 0-670-88704-8
Page Count: 544
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1999
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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