A touching, intelligent read filled with moments of wisdom.
A troubled teen gets a new outlook in Carinci’s (Defying Death in Hagerstown, 2014, etc.) uplifting novel about second chances.
After a run-in with the law, young Brian Sanchez is beginning to wonder where he’s headed. He worries that his occasional shoplifting is only the start of a life of crime. But when he meets a friendly homeless man in the park called Everett Quinn, things start to take a surprisingly different turn. Despite sleeping on a park bench in all kinds of weather and never knowing where his next meal is coming from, Everett is a content and happy man who’s full of gratitude. Dumbfounded, Brian eventually learns more about this peculiar man as they spend long afternoons deep in conversation. It turns out that Everett has what one might call an alter ego; the spirit of an Englishman from 1802 lives inside him, he says, who likes to sporadically voice his opinion. At first, Brian is skeptical about the man’s sanity, but he becomes humbled and even inspired by the wealth of life experience that he has to offer. Strangers often approach Everett for advice on their problems, and he’s always ready to offer new ideas or fresh insight. This makes him somewhat of a household name among the locals, and Brian’s proud to be his friend. As time passes, Brian’s life undergoes unanticipated changes. Carinci takes the story in an unexpectedly religious direction when it becomes clear that much of Everett’s resilience comes from his enduring Christian faith, and there are many instances of insightful dialogue: “We have no idea when our time will be up. So we must maximize our time and help others every chance we get. We are all brothers and sisters.” The transformation of narrator Brian from a troubled street kid into a kind and compassionate man gives the plot a satisfying emotional depth. Along the way, readers will enjoy a delightful, entertaining sense of camaraderie with the protagonist.
A touching, intelligent read filled with moments of wisdom.Pub Date: Feb. 15, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-64416-930-8
Page Count: 200
Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
Review Posted Online: May 30, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Genetically engineered dinosaurs run amok in Crichton's new, vastly entertaining science thriller. From the introduction alone—a classically Crichton-clear discussion of the implications of biotechnological research—it's evident that the Harvard M.D. has bounced back from the science-fantasy silliness of Sphere (1987) for another taut reworking of the Frankenstein theme, as in The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Here, Dr. Frankenstein is aging billionaire John Hammond, whose monster is a manmade ecosystem based on a Costa Rican island. Designed as the world's ultimate theme park, the ecosystem boasts climate and flora of the Jurassic Age and—most spectacularly—15 varieties of dinosaurs, created by elaborate genetic engineering that Crichton explains in fascinating detail, rich with dino-lore and complete with graphics. Into the park, for a safety check before its opening, comes the novel's band of characters—who, though well drawn, double as symbolic types in this unsubtle morality play. Among them are hero Alan Grant, noble paleontologist; Hammond, venal and obsessed; amoral dino-designer Henry Wu; Hammond's two innocent grandchildren; and mathematician Ian Malcolm, who in long diatribes serves as Crichton's mouthpiece to lament the folly of science. Upon arrival, the visitors tour the park; meanwhile, an industrial spy steals some dino embryos by shutting down the island's power—and its security grid, allowing the beasts to run loose. The bulk of the remaining narrative consists of dinos—ferocious T. Rex's, voracious velociraptors, venom-spitting dilophosaurs—stalking, ripping, and eating the cast in fast, furious, and suspenseful set-pieces as the ecosystem spins apart. And can Grant prevent the dinos from escaping to the mainland to create unchecked havoc? Though intrusive, the moralizing rarely slows this tornado-paced tale, a slick package of info-thrills that's Crichton's most clever since Congo (1980)—and easily the most exciting dinosaur novel ever written. A sure-fire best-seller.
Pub Date: Nov. 7, 1990
ISBN: 0394588169
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1990
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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