A convincing glimpse into the challenges of navigating small-town gossip, social pressure, and the inevitable difficulty of...
A young, unmarried, pregnant woman in 1950s Arkansas faces an uphill climb in Keenan’s (In Those First Bright Days of Elvis, 2016) follow-up novel.
It’s 1957, and Elvis is still gyrating his famous hips. While Julie Morgan continues to trade letters with the handsome rock star, her life in El Dorado has become increasingly different…and difficult. Following the death of one friend and the betrayal of another, Julie struggles to reconcile her feelings toward the in crowd. To further complicate matters, she has a love-hate relationship with her half sister and look-alike, Carmen. But Julie’s social struggles all become secondary when she realizes she’s pregnant. She can’t continue to reside in El Dorado, pregnant and unmarried. She won’t settle for a marriage of convenience to the baby’s father, and her mother wants her to move to a home for unwed mothers. To avoid suspicion, Carmen delivers a solution straight out of The Parent Trap. Julie heads to the misleadingly named Happiness House to deliver her baby while Carmen assumes Julie’s identity. Neither Carmen nor Julie is prepared for the difficulties. While Carmen struggles to convince Julie’s family and friends that she hasn’t changed, Julie can’t decide whether she will keep her baby or give it up for adoption. Keenan’s second Days of Elvis novel continues Julie’s coming-of-age story. It’s satisfying to watch her begin to realize her own independent thoughts and feelings and even experience early stirrings of feminism. The author touches on potentially difficult issues—divorce, infidelity, pregnancy, and abortion—and does an admirable job portraying the often inconceivable repercussions of now commonplace experiences in a small, Southern town in the ’50s. Carmen and Julie take turns narrating, and the dialogue toggles smoothly between their two distinct voices. It’s interesting to watch Carmen navigate the complicated social hierarchy in El Dorado, but Julie’s story truly drives the narrative.
A convincing glimpse into the challenges of navigating small-town gossip, social pressure, and the inevitable difficulty of becoming an adult.Pub Date: March 25, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68313-105-2
Page Count: 242
Publisher: Pen-L Publishing
Review Posted Online: June 20, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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
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