Austen’s wit seems less sparkling and more forced in so trite a setting.
The pseudonymous author of two Jane Austen sequels (The Third Sister, 1996, etc.) here takes up Austen’s unfinished
manuscript satirizing land speculators and fashionable seaside towns, completing it with period style and dash, though plot developments are less satisfying Austen began The Brothers (better known as Sanditon, the name her survivors gave it) shortly before she died in 1817. The 12 chapters she wrote promise a spirited satire of the burgeoning popularity of seaside resorts, whose air and water were thought to have healing powers, and Barrett picks up where Austen left off. Several themes have contemporary resonance, particularly the characters” preoccupation with alternative medicine and the desire of property developers Mr. Parker and Lady Debenham to profit from this fashion. These two, who have invested money in building houses to rent, hope that Sanditon will be the next Brighton. The folly of their enterprise is seen mostly through the eyes of Charlotte Heywood, a young woman staying with the Parkers in their new seaside villa, Trafalgar House. Charlotte is amused by romantic, verse-quoting Sir Edward, Lady Debenham’s nephew and heir, but Edward himself is more taken with Clara, the Lady’s penniless prot‚g‚e. As the season opens, a gratifying number of wealthy visitors arrive, as do Mr. Parker’s hypochondriacal sisters and youngest brother, who soon find their health, happiness, and vocation in Sanditon. Also in attendance is Sidney, another Parker brother, who shares Charlotte’s sardonic understanding of others” follies. Mutual attraction ensues as the plot labors to thicken. The resort still has too many vacant accommodations, so Sir Edward goes to London, hoping to make money by persuading a horse-racing and gambling establishment to move to Sanditon. It does, but the ensuing scandal soon empties the town. Only love triumphs. All those nice Regency details are here, but the people are sketchy creatures compelled to rush through a creaky plot. Even
Austen’s wit seems less sparkling and more forced in so trite a setting.Pub Date: April 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-87131-908-X
Page Count: 240
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2000
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
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her...
Another middle-aged mom in a muddle.
After years of false starts and big hopes, Elizabeth’s ruggedly handsome husband Jack, a former football star, just landed a spot as a sportscaster on national news. He still loves her, even though much younger women are giving him come-hither looks. Heck, he doesn’t want to betray the love of his life after she helped him kick drugs and stuck by him even when he was a struggling has-been. And won’t it seem hypocritical if he fools around with his sexy assistant while he does in-depth reporting on a rape case involving a famous basketball center? Well, he fools around anyway. Elizabeth, nicknamed Birdie, knows nothing of this, but she withdraws from Jack when her hard-drinking, salt-of-the-earth father has a stroke and dies. Now no one will call her “sugar beet” ever again. Time to return home to Tennessee and contend with Anita, the sort-of-evil stepmother so trashy she wears pink puffy slippers all day long. Naturally, it turns out that Anita actually has a heart of gold and knows a few things about Birdie’s dead mother that were hushed up for years. Mom was an artist, just like Birdie, and an old scandal comes to light as Anita unrolls a vibrant canvas that portrays her secret lover. Perhaps, Birdie muses, her mother died of heartbreak, never having followed her true love or developed her talent. Has she, too, compromised everything she holds dear? Hoping to find out, Birdie joins a support group that promises to reconnect confused women with their passion. She and Jack separate, prompting a how-dare-you fit from their grown daughters. Will Birdie fly her empty nest? Will she go back to college for a degree in art? Will her brooding watercolors ever sell?
Soft-focus story moves right along with few surprises. This time around, Hannah avoids the soap-opera complications of her previous tales (Summer Island, 2001, etc.).Pub Date: July 1, 2002
ISBN: 0-345-45071-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2002
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