An exceptional read; Peter Jangle could carry a third book, even without the Sandman.
Events lead a college student to accept the possibility that he must once again face an ominous genie called the Sandman.
New Madrid, Mo., is the epicenter of a magnitude-6.8 earthquake, and Peter, his friends and family feel the tremors in Indiana. Peter sees fleeting images of the Sandman, who tormented him three years ago (Peter Jangle Uncorks the Inflation Genie, 2011). After he and his friends all leave for summer jobs, the young man believes the earthquake, unbearably hot days and a few people’s extraordinarily good fortune all point to one thing—the evil genie is back. Marske’s novel packs a lot into the pages, as Peter, his girlfriend, Sarah, and their friends, Tom, Jerry and Kathy, each enhance the narrative. The friends’ lives, all seemingly different, do ultimately converge. Peter, who works at a money management firm, suspects the Sandman may have helped a trader obtain inside information, assisted an unscrupulous employee at Sarah’s father’s bank and helped a doctor who’s developing an untested body-enhancing drug. The story goes into great detail concerning investments at both the firm and bank, and while it helps the reader understand what Peter’s doing at work, it also has the tendency to sidetrack the main plot: the Sandman’s imminent reappearance. Marske wisely keeps the genie at a distance for most of the book, deriving suspense from the uncertainty of who’s encountered the Sandman. Meanwhile, the subplots, including Peter’s jealousy of Sarah’s charming boss, and Jerry’s (who’s black) concerns about dating a white Jewish woman, take a shine all their own. While comparing Orwell’s Animal Farm with Peter’s workplace is a bit of a stretch, Peter’s boss does explicitly compare employees to animals, and the author seasons his novel with shrewd analogies: Tony, the pigheaded trader, clinches his arguments by feeding goldfish to piranha; and the Sandman, comparable to the goatlike devil, offers cash for souls.
An exceptional read; Peter Jangle could carry a third book, even without the Sandman.Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2012
ISBN: 978-0985259006
Page Count: 338
Publisher: Peter Jangle
Review Posted Online: Jan. 25, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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