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HOOK'S TALE

Name: HOOK'S TALE
Author: John Leonard Pielmeier
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6105-6

BEING THE ACCOUNT OF AN UNJUSTLY VILLAINIZED PIRATE WRITTEN BY HIMSELF

by John Leonard Pielmeier ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 18, 2017

The author's thorough, affectionate knowledge of both the original book and the historical period grounds this fantasy in...

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In his playful first novel, playwright Pielmeier (best known for Agnes of God, 1979) allows Peter Pan’s Captain Hook a chance to tell the story from his point of view.

It’s not that of J.M. Barrie, that “sad little Scotsman,” as Hook (nee James Cook) refers to him. This James is something of a lost boy himself, sent away to be bullied at Eton, orphaned early, and shanghaied onto a British ship that gets lost in a temporal loop somewhere in midocean. There he meets the rotund Smee and the other future pirates he'll command after a trip to England sends him spinning into the future. But not before he finds his way, accompanied by his beloved pet crocodile, Daisy, into the real “Never-Isle,” which is populated by mermaids with “whiskers. Of the walrus variety” as well as an erratic Peter Pan, whose memory stretches back only as far as yesterday and whose “Darker Nature” makes him inclined to sprinkle unsuspecting comrades with fake fairy dust for the pleasure of watching them fall off cliffs. Hook’s long months at sea grow tedious for the reader, but Pielmeier’s revisionist version of the Enchanted Isles is vividly sensuous, and the novel offers the particular pleasure of explaining the key points of the original in new ways. Cameo appearances by Sherlock Holmes and possibly the real Jack the Ripper, as well as various characters from Treasure Island, the world of which oddly intersects with that of Hook and his comrades, add texture to the tale. While the author’s meditations on the costs and benefits of mortality don’t break any new ground and some of his references are obscure enough that only Victorian scholars will catch them, anyone who would like another trip to Barrie’s enchanted world should be pleased with the opportunity the novel offers to see it anew.

The author's thorough, affectionate knowledge of both the original book and the historical period grounds this fantasy in rich detail.

Pub Date: July 18, 2017

ISBN: 978-1-5011-6105-6

Page Count: 288

Publisher: Scribner

Review Posted Online: May 14, 2017

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2017

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.