A compelling and frightening travel tale about resilience amid the crimes of war.
An Australian tourist meets an unexpected fate in a war-torn Central American country in this novel.
Justin Thorntree, a 52-year-old auto parts store owner from Sydney, has decided to spend six weeks traveling in Central America after splitting up with his wife. It is 1990, and he still looks better than Paul Newman, he’s got some money, and he wants to explore. On the bus to Las Mesas, a small resort town, he encounters Gretchen and Monica, two young European women whom he begins to tag along with. The unnamed country is in the final stages of a civil war. At a restaurant in Las Mesas, two local academics describe the volatile social and political situation, which involves guerrillas fighting with the ruling oligarchy. Even so, the scene in Las Mesas is enjoyable, but Justin must head to the capital to replace a missing passport. He is dismayed to learn his ex-wife is suing him for $2 million and drowns his misery in a gloomy cafe. There, a shady character and a devious waitress pull a scam that leaves Justin horribly injured and lying in a ditch. Penniless and with limited mobility, Justin becomes a resident of the Hotel of the Four Winds, an outdoor area for the homeless. An injured ex-guerrilla named Indito takes Justin under his wing, and he becomes one of the war refugees, the invisible people whom no one asks any questions: “It was one of the few dignities afforded those who were dying on the street.” Taken with a woman named Silvia, Justin seems to regard his stay in the country as indefinite, though it becomes painfully clear the war isn’t entirely over. Mascia’s (Sawdust Footprints, 2014) stark prose works very well in describing the delights and the absurdities of traveling in the developing world while deftly constructing a tale wherein the main character is practically swallowed whole by society. Devoid of sentimentality, the harrowing story is effective without being overtly emotional and brings up relevant questions about human dignity and morality regarding the homeless, Latin America, and the “beloved imperialistic benefactor to the north.” As Everyman Justin slowly moves toward recovery, the fictional nation vividly portrayed here is reeling until the book’s conclusion.
A compelling and frightening travel tale about resilience amid the crimes of war.Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2006
ISBN: 978-0-9989172-2-1
Page Count: 244
Publisher: Gavilan Books
Review Posted Online: March 31, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2019
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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