An exciting story set in an imaginative, capably rendered prehistoric world.
An epic of high drama, set 14,000 years ago against the days of spirits and strange happenings.
In this ancient fantasy, Rollins fashions a saga from the great migrations that drove people from Australia and eastern Asia to make their way across Polynesia, Melanesia and the great Pacific. Rollins portrays smoky, pungent images of village life: the fortuitous saving of a disfigured child marked for death, the importance of sacred stones and heavenly music, a time when royals voted critical decisions by a count of eggs. Shamans squeeze vital signs out of the ether, but they steer clear of self-importance. For example, one shaman doesn’t fudge his ignorance to save his ego: “Raidu came over and looked at the tray. ‘What do the omens say?’ Owl Man didn’t look up. ‘It’s difficult to say.’ ‘Perhaps a better shaman could read them.’ ‘Perhaps,’ Owl Man replied.” The world Rollins creates is fully alive—“all in one piece with no boundaries between items, somewhere between the world of people and the world of dreams”—though hardly benevolent; a great geologic cataclysm shatters the peoples’ lives and sends them on their eastward quest, into a sea Rollins makes achingly wide and deep. This work follows on the heels of Rollins’ previous work (Misfits and Heroes, 2010), and there’s much of the same sense of time’s passage, as characters grow into themselves and enough years pass for volcanoes to level islands and entire fleets of citizens to flee. Rollins is a writer with a touch for complexity and range, with plenty of meaty detail in her pages and a considerable stable of fleshed-out characters, but she keeps it all surely in hand. She also has a talent for bringing realism to a world where all things are possessed with some sense of spirit, and a pervasive magic guides one’s destiny as surely as willful decisions.
An exciting story set in an imaginative, capably rendered prehistoric world.Pub Date: Dec. 6, 2012
ISBN: 978-1479308262
Page Count: 410
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A well-written, insightful account of abandoning self-identity to ultimately reclaim it.
Jacob’s debut novel follows a young Jewish man in search of himself in the early 1970s.
The bar mitzvah of Richard Zelman—an overweight, social misfit from California—is a disaster. Richard’s family’s humiliation is complete when he devolves into overwhelmed silence while at the synagogue’s podium and must be hand-fed his entire speech by the rabbi, to the horror of his family and the entire congregation. His only escape is an imaginary friend, Nygel Ply, who is his respite from a wretched life that’s capsizing him, despite his valiant efforts to rise to the surface. Richard attempts to leave his mistakes behind by moving to Europe and establishing a new identity as Nygel Ply, someone he never could manage to become while stateside. The bulk of the novel is the poignant, introspective journey of young Nygel as he meanders across Europe. The author effortlessly draws the reader into Nygel’s world as he meets various strangers who redirect his life from aimless wandering to working as a teacher at an English home for mentally challenged children. The secondary characters Nygel connects with are skillfully drafted, flawed people whose struggles both touch Nygel’s heart and facilitate his inner growth. Jacob’s use of setting is extraordinary; the streets of LA, small British pubs, a small English town, a terrifying encounter with border guards in Turkey all enliven Richard’s travels. Intricate details bring the varied settings to life, but do not intrude on the narrative.
A well-written, insightful account of abandoning self-identity to ultimately reclaim it.Pub Date: April 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1456421427
Page Count: 380
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 2, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A refreshingly blunt chorus of older women’s voices.
Meier (Ireland, Place Out of Time, 2017, etc.) and debut editor Barry, a psychotherapist, present an anthology of essays and poetry about female sexuality after age 50.
For some women, aging doesn’t mean the end of their sex lives but rather the beginning of new adventures. Liberation from pregnancy fears, child-rearing responsibilities, and menstruation allow them to fully indulge their own pursuit of pleasure. This anthology gives such women the opportunity to speak for themselves—and they do so with aplomb. Nonfiction author Bernadette Murphy discovers the orgasmic perks of learning to ride a motorcycle post-divorce. Lisa Mae DeMasi, whose work has appeared in multiple literary journals, finds that, with reiki practice and essential oils, achieving climax no longer feels like “trudging up Mount Washington with a dead body strapped to my back.” Writer and blogger Rita Bullinger describes how a communication technique called “Imago dialogue” has increased intimacy and sexual satisfaction with her lover: “Communication coupled with oral sex, I’m convinced, is what makes sex at sixty-six the best sex of our lives.” It’s not all excitement and discovery, however; writer Lola Fontay shares the unsettling experience of witnessing a man masturbating in front of her at the end of their first date. Poet Becky Dennison Sakellariou considers the legacy of silence around women’s desire: “A woman like me is invisible, if she is not, / she should be, an anathema, a sin.” But many writers here use humor to talk about the havoc that aging can wreak: “Just when we have our act together the warranty goes out on the equipment,” says author and professional speaker Sally Franz in her hilariously prescriptive essay “Tweaking Sex After Fifty.” The authors also often address sex with tact and sensuality: “Sometimes then, long-married / bodies, after stuttering into sleep, / curve into long slumbers of silk yesses, / yesses loud enough to waken dreams,” writes poet Brenda Yates. Toward the end, the bad online dating stories do become a bit repetitive. But there’s a diverse array of perspectives here, each unique enough to keep readers intrigued.
A refreshingly blunt chorus of older women’s voices.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-9990994-4-5
Page Count: 190
Publisher: Weeping Willow Books
Review Posted Online: July 11, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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