Harmless fun for the lads, courtesy of second-timer McNally (Troublemakers, not reviewed).
A flamed-out dot-commer revisits his fairly grubby apprenticeship in delinquency in the tutelage of an older and street-wiser buddy.
The always reliable fascination of the good kid with the possibilities of the hood life knit together anecdotal memoirs set in the seedy southwest corner of Chicago in the late ’70s and early ’80s. Despite a home life that’s spiraling toward the septic tank, eighth-grader Hank Boyd has made it through Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy elementary with pretty good grades, staying out of the principal’s office and avoiding confrontation with the older kids who menace the sidewalk. He is certainly doing better than twice-flunked Ralph, the school hellion. Ralph, who lives with his never-seen mum in a shingle-sided shotgun exception to the buff brick postwar neighborhood flouts authority and has criminal connections, cousins Kenny and Norm. Loosely bonded by Hank’s qualified admiration and Ralph’s pleasure in having a semi-capable assistant, the boys begin to test the tolerance of the community for their brand of largely victimless small crime. Ralph is always proposing stuff that’s a lot scarier than any trouble they actually get into, and Hank has to scramble to talk Ralph out of his bad ideas. Kenny and Norm, who have done time and have cars, provide constant peeks at the possibilities of bigger and more dangerous activities, but the worst trouble they get the younger boys into is a gig wearing Sesame Street drag at a used-car lot. Much time is spent dwelling on Hank’s preadolescent and unrequited lust for the girls in his class and then for a sexy young teacher. And there is a very amusing reminiscence of CB radio in its glory days. In a longish coda, Hank, now a jobless CPA, returns to Chicago to lick his wounds after losing his girlfriend and again falls in with Ralph and the cousins, who now have a hugely successful business cleaning up crime scenes.
Harmless fun for the lads, courtesy of second-timer McNally (Troublemakers, not reviewed).Pub Date: March 2, 2004
ISBN: 0-7432-5555-0
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Free Press
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2004
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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