Genuinely compassionate and likely to resonate among families and young adults with loved ones in the service.
A fraternal bond is stressed beyond the breaking point in this heartfelt, if initially slow-moving, coming-home story.
High school senior Chase Peterson, whose first name may or may not refer to the title, is determined to join the Marines after graduating high school. Never mind the offer of a track scholarship from an Iowa university, or the parental pleas to accept it. And never mind the increasingly disturbing behavior of his brother, Danny, a Marine Corps corporal who returned from Afghanistan with mental wounds vastly worse than his physical wounds. Chase intends to enlist when he turns 18 regardless of anything his friends and family say. The reason for his determination, though plausible, is withheld until the end of the book, which raises the question of how plausible it is that Chase hasn’t been pressed to reveal the reason earlier in the story. Perhaps to address this arguably significant problem, Schulteis has Chase pointing out that he didn’t mention it earlier because “no one has ever asked me straight up.” The folks who haven’t bothered to ask, Chase adds, include his track coach, his mother and father, his girlfriends and his best friend. Beyond that, there’s no debate about his pending decision to enlist, not to mention a debate about the virtuousness of the Afghan war itself, which robs the first two-thirds of the story of significantly greater tension. Otherwise, much of the plot is devoted to increasing concerns about Danny’s anger and drinking, as well as the usual high school angst involving boredom and romantic longings. Olga Gutierrez, the girl who gradually becomes the focus of Chase’s longings, is particularly compelling, and the eventual explanation of her brother’s death in war-related circumstances provides a poignant revelation during the prolonged, powerful denouement.
Genuinely compassionate and likely to resonate among families and young adults with loved ones in the service.Pub Date: May 14, 2013
ISBN: 978-1484046968
Page Count: 220
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 10, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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