An ambitious, energetic, overlong but passionate novel about fate, hope, and faith, by the author of the acclaimed La Maravilla (1993). VÇa's fiction often seems equally reminiscent of John Steinbeck and Gabriel Garc°a M†rquez. He has a frank, deep empathy for the underdog and outcast, and a clear, fierce anger about their mistreatment and exploitation. And he loves to weave vivid folkloric elements and beings into his plots. The action this time out repeatedly returns to the Silver Cloud CafÇ, a cantina in San Francisco's seedy Mission District, a way station for a curious group of wanderers. There is a midget philosopher, in search of the woman he loved and lost. A Mexican priest, in flight from a variety of spirits, both demonic and ethereal. And a rather curious assassin, on the trail of his longtime quarry. Not surprisingly, perhaps, their stories begin to intersect. Two ghastly murders in San Francisco, several decades apart, turn out to be related. The repercussions following the bloody repression of a revolt in Mexico in the 1920s reach into the present. Violence in VÇa's fiction has a way of lingering, the losses and guilt it generates being passed down from generation to generation. Only faith, he suggests, has the power to dissipate the deforming effects of violence. Few contemporary novelists dwell so much or so variously on the question of faith: The characters here dream about matters of faith, tell stories about improbable acts inspired by faith, and spend much of their time meditating on the possibilities of redemption. For VÇa, faith is very much on the side of the oppressed, and it plays a central role in the resolution of the various quests at the heart of the tale. A highly original work, then, equally concerned with religion and with the oppressed. Too crowded with incident for its own good but, still, a moving work.
Pub Date: Oct. 14, 1996
ISBN: 0-525-94077-4
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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