The domestic harmony of an eccentric Midwest family is threatened in this enchanting, at times unsettling, seventh novel from Strong (An Untold Tale, 1993, etc.). Lincoln and Izzy, tender sweethearts since age 11, are now the devoted parents of three odd, lovable boys who have dedicated their young lives to excavating a tunnel in their basement. The oddness seems inherited, for Linc and Izzy are the very definition of quixotic misfits. Though both are from affluent families, they eschew any trace of their privileged, traditional background: They putter around in an old jalopy, forbid religion in their slightly shabby home, tinker halfheartedly at business (Linc has turned a childhood passion for cartography into an old-maps store; Izzy owns a junk-shop), and are splendidly unadventurous, preferring the safety of a world atlas to actual travel. And though they've been monogamous since grade school, they're still unmarried. This hardly seems the stuff of a deviant lifestyle, but Strong effectively creates an oppressive, bunker-like environment for the family. The basement tunnel, which represents so much more than the boys' idiosyncratic amusement, becomes a further retreat from a world they all fear, a safety zone from civilization. The pleasantly meandering plot accelerates when the sanctuary of their home is endangered: A school psychologist takes a suspicious interest in the middle boy, Malachi. He and his brothers, Obadiah and Zephaniah, seem harmlessly secretive and precocious, but after a car is set afire, stop-signs defaced, and random acts of vandalism pop up at school, the psychologist begins to suspect the worst of those quiet, eerily obedient boys. When tragedy inevitably hits, the family experiences the ultimate test of their devotion to one another—and their diminishing ability to keep the world at bay. Endearing characters produce a fascinating portrait of American family life, viewed through the quirky perspective of the author.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-944072-55-0
Page Count: 240
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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