A blithe, goofy, hit-and-miss fantasia.
In this maritime adventure, a castaway meets a ghost and discovers that his spiritual apotheosis involves strafing bad guys from a glitzy yacht.
Ruined in the real estate collapse, 55-year-old British-American ex-cop Jonathan Porter has nothing left except his ability to communicate with spirits. That serves him well when a plane crash deposits him on an uncharted Caribbean island inhabited only by the shade of the Commander, a crusty British naval officer marooned there 100 years before. With plentiful fish, a magic pool of healing rainwater and lots of automatic rifles and ammo gleaned from the drug- and gun-running gangs who occasionally do battle offshore, Jonathan thrives, adopting the motto “How lucky was that!” Alas, his spirit guides insist that he shove off from his island paradise and fulfill his destiny by helping to cast down “the traders and money-makers”—jacked-up credit card rates are a sore point—and usher in world peace. Fortunately, his luck holds when it comes to pursuing that mission. With the Commander’s spectral assistance, Jonathan commandeers a 200-foot, $80 million yacht; acquires diamonds, gold doubloons and a trust fund so immense that he crafts an economic stimulus program for the Bahamas, where he is hailed as a deity; and recruits crew members who look just as good slaughtering pirates with long-range sniper fire as they do sipping champagne in their bikinis. There are many clashing genres of wish-fulfillment here—Crusoe-esque idylls and New Age mysticism colliding with special ops shoot-’em-ups and girls-gone-wild lasciviousness; Capra-style populism bumping against luxury cruising and high-end retail. The story sometimes languishes in the doldrums during extended scenes of shopping sprees and Jacuzzi parties, despite the Commander’s efforts to shake things up by invisibly levitating the drinks. Still, Cross pens some lively, intriguing set pieces, and his commitment to gonzo escapism lends the proceedings a certain charm.
A blithe, goofy, hit-and-miss fantasia.Pub Date: March 31, 2011
ISBN: 978-1460998014
Page Count: 256
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: May 26, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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