An engaging sea yarn with more verisimilitude, if less romance, than O’Brian readers expect.
Comparisons to Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin saga are inevitable, but Stockwin’s debut, the first in a planned naval series covering approximately the same era, focuses on the common seamen rather than on the officers. No musical duets in the captain’s chambers here.
Stockwin, a retired lieutenant commander in the British Royal Navy, introduces as his unlikely hero Thomas Kydd, a 20-year-old wig-maker pressed into service in 1793 just as Britain is drawn into war against postrevolutionary France. Overwhelmed by life on the 98-gun battleship Duke William, landlubber Kydd is befriended, first by an older sailor on his watch who dies in a tragic if typical accident in the sails and then by the mysterious Nicholas Renzi, a man of wealth in self-exile as a common seaman who will undoubtedly reappear in later installments. As Kydd gradually gains his sea legs, the reader learns with him the intricate workings of the boat and gets to know through his eyes the men above and below deck: the inexperienced captain who improves with time, an able but cruel officer, potential mutineers inspired by radical political leanings, hardened seamen hoping to land a bounty that will make them rich. Kydd’s first storm at sea is rendered with great drama that is enhanced when the Duke William crew attempts to aid a ship in distress—with unexpected results. Kydd participates in a landing party on the French coast, ending up behind enemy lines, and in a sea battle. Warfare is depicted with gruesome, at times breath-stopping detail but little glory. As Kydd says, “It was the uncertainty, the knowledge that out there was an enemy who was doing his best to kill him . . . To his shame his knees began to tremble again.” Kydd almost makes some disastrous choices, but in the end his seamanship, his patriotic loyalty, and a bit of luck save the day.
An engaging sea yarn with more verisimilitude, if less romance, than O’Brian readers expect.Pub Date: June 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7432-1458-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Scribner
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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