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On Woodward

Name: On Woodward
Author: Joyce Van Haren
ISBN: 978-1458210500

by Joyce Van Haren ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2014

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As the Great Depression pummels the United States, a Kentucky family moves to Detroit to start a new life in Van Haren’s debut novel.
Alma Combs’ father, Chet, works in a coal mine that’s had one too many accidents. After the latest scare, he decides it’s time to move his family up north; he knows a man who found a job in a factory there, and is sure he’ll be able to do the same. Alma, who shares a special bond with her father, is sad to leave the mountains where they dreamed of having a farm someday, but she’s also excited to see Detroit. As an aspiring artist, she’s bitten by the big-city bug almost immediately, and she’s enamored of Detroit’s soaring architecture, well-dressed socialites and beautiful paintings at the art institute. Obsessed with leaving her “hillbilly” image behind, Alma fixates on beauty and refinement, and is embarrassed by her mother’s old-fashioned, spendthrift ways. The novel follows Alma and the other members of the Combs family as they attempt to weather difficult times, each encountering their own personal demons. Soon the story, as seen mostly through Alma’s eyes, moves from the depths of the Depression into the booming era of World War II. The author effectively shows not just the outward effects of the changing economy, but its emotional toll as well, and as Alma leaves her childhood innocence behind and attempts to become a great artist, she becomes a study in contradictions. Van Haren skillfully creates a protagonist who’s not likable per se, but certainly redeemable, and very much a product of her times. Alma’s growth as a person, and her engaging relationship with her family, keep the novel whizzing along. That said, the story hits a few predictable notes and sometimes veers away from more serious moral issues, such as a possible connection between Alma’s patron and the Nazis. However, the majority of the novel looks hard at Alma’s missteps, and paints a full portrait of her struggle for the American Dream.
A conventional but often pleasurable look at a family during a turning point in American history.

Pub Date: March 21, 2014

ISBN: 978-1458210500

Page Count: 450

Publisher: AbbottPress

Review Posted Online: Aug. 22, 2014

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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MAGIC HOUR

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006

Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951

A strict report, worthy of sympathy.

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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.