Subtle, tongue-in-cheek novel from Espey, the American writer and linguist whose most recent book, Strong Drink, Strong Language (1990)—much of which appeared in the 1940's in The New Yorker—was a nonfictional take on the boyhood he spent in China Here, the story is set in two separate times—the 1950's and shortly after WW I—with the older story's resolution in the later one. Tom Lloyd heads east from California at the onset of winter, to Wyoming and Iowa, on a mission to resolve old family matters. His eccentric parents act as if a drive across the country is going into combat, and wonder whether Tom, who is 37, can manage it. Tom is an engaging narrator, the son of retired Presbyterian missionaries to Shanghai, and the reminiscences of China are rich here. But the novel's charm comes from this ``fine family'' he's part of, now fallen on hard times through the misadventures of a mysterious grandfather. Espey is all attitude, genteel distance. Tom himself, though incomparably shrewd about emotions and motivations, seems barely able to operate a car, ``turning on the motor'' rather than starting the engine, and floundering about with bemused gas-station attendants as he crosses the country. When the cold settles, he engages in his secret, preacher kid's vice of swilling from flasks of Teacher's. But, with a certain wry resolve, he accomplishes his mission. We learn that the Lloyds were not so well regarded in Dalton, Iowa, because of their hifalutin ways. When they returned to Shanghai, some thought it good riddance. Tom meets an adolescent flame (old hurts are healed), and he enacts a sort of revenge upon a wrong done him—and the family—in boyhood. Then he's on his way again, Teacher's in hand. Flawlessly executed, whimsical, and odd—rather like Glenway Wescott but without his dark heart.
Pub Date: June 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-936784-97-0
Page Count: 176
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
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