A witty and wise read, especially for fans of tough-minded heroines.
A fictional account of one woman’s struggle with marriage and faith.
K. (The Lent Hand, 2011, etc.) introduces us to Mary Stanley, a proper Catholic girl of the 1970s whose life plan could be plotted by a GPS: “It was all crystal clear. Marry. Mother. Endure. Ascend. Bingo.” And of course, remain a virgin until marriage and honor the other precepts of Holy Mother Church. Mary marries a good Catholic boy from the neighborhood, Bruce O’Kenna, and slow disaster follows. Bruce has an undersized penis (not a spoiler: we learn this on the very first page). Bruce lets his penis define his life and excuse him from finding real happiness. He is a passive aggressive, insufferable, controlling whiner. K. paints a wonderfully grim picture of this husband that faithful Mary endures—which would seem to have become the key word in her life agenda. Bruce does give her three children, however, and when the book opens, Mary is a middle-aged, divorced (in the eyes of the state, if not the church), empty-nester unjustly fired from her job as a bookkeeper for the diocese; she discovered a lot of fiscal hanky-panky—and mishandling of rogue priests—and could keep quiet no longer. Mary then volunteers at a women’s shelter. This section reads almost like nonfiction and includes anecdotes about women who keep screwing up—neither gender is spared in this book—and those who finally manage to take control of their lives. Mary, aided by her friend Sister Agatha, another fighter and realist, begins to come into her own spiritually. Eventually, Bruce dies, freeing Mary to remarry. This is a story of bad breaks and redemption, a story of choices. Bruce always sees the glass as half empty, and it impoverishes his life. Mary is no Pollyanna, but neither is she a quitter. At the end of the book, she’s a mature woman who has seen what life can throw at a person and has learned to deal with it. There are old truths here known to any true grown-up, but it is good to be reminded of them again.
A witty and wise read, especially for fans of tough-minded heroines.Pub Date: June 27, 2012
ISBN: 978-1475028850
Page Count: 122
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2012
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A nostalgic, authentic novel that charms with its vintage hue.
Brown’s debut novel recounts how a young woman’s murder affects the lives of childhood friends.
In the early-20th century, three adolescent boys—Nickels, Kurt and Charlie—are the most loyal of chums. They each face their share of hardships, but none so difficult as Nickels’ father’s imprisonment for a murder he didn’t commit. The man was a father to all three boys; Charlie’s dad is a hapless drunk, and Kurt lost his father at a young age to pneumonia. Life goes on, inside and outside prison walls, until the friends learn that revenge against the real killer is in sight. The account is narrated by Nicky’s granddaughter, who gathered the information from her family. This approach adds a sense of authenticity and casts the tale as a recollection. Characters seem to arrive already defined, as they would in memory. The three boys are the indisputable heroes, and the villains are blatantly evil—Russell Cantrell, a rich lawyer who’s introduced as he accuses someone else for a crime he committed (he’s only 13 at the time), and his assistant/chauffeur, Voigt, whose hands are dirty almost from the get-go. The murder is incidental to the narrative, and the murderer’s identity is never really in question. Still, a generous amount of suspense comes with the revelation of the victim’s name and the exact date and location of the murder. The novel recreates an era as it follow the boys’ lives from World War I through their adulthood and into the Great Depression. Several issues faced by the characters are still relevant today, such as corruption and bigotry—Nicky and his Polish family are often vulgarly called “Polacks.” But it is the portrayal of real-world history—the height of Prohibition, the early days of cinema—that makes the book such a gem.
A nostalgic, authentic novel that charms with its vintage hue.Pub Date: May 11, 2012
ISBN: 978-0985439118
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Woodchuck Publishers
Review Posted Online: July 26, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A thought-provoking thriller.
In Folsom’s novel, the Saudis and the Americans team up to thwart Iran’s attempt to build a nuclear bomb.
What will happen if Iran successfully develops a nuclear warhead? This question, which usually vexes presidential candidates and U.N. diplomats, drives Folsom’s fast-paced follow-up to his previous novel (The Pareto Spread, 2006). As scientists in Iran drive relentlessly toward completion of the nuclear technology that will give them a bomb, powerful figures in the U.S. and the Middle East fear that the Iranians’ pursuit will set off an arms race that will throw the Arab world into chaos and endanger global stability. Hoping to avert catastrophe, members of the Saudi royal family risk it all on “Peaceful Eagle,” a dangerous gambit that will deliver either peace or destruction. A Cold War-era bomb lies hundreds of feet below the ground in North Carolina, and the Saudis contract with the New Democratic Right—a semi-covert American paramilitary group—to extract the warhead. If necessary, the Saudis plan to detonate the device preemptively in Iran, scuttling the country’s nuclear ambitions and avoiding all-out war. Meanwhile, Robert Faircloth, an NDR operative, is working his way through the Middle East in an effort to contact the Iranian mullahs, warn them of the impending danger and resolve the crisis diplomatically. The tension mounts as these figures and others race to a startling conclusion. Folsom’s novel is full of satisfying twists and intrigues; Tom Clancy would be proud. Further, the author is clearly conversant in international politics, Arab cultural norms and the intricacies of global religion. His knowledge lends his novel a realistic look and feel, and his expansive familiarity with current events gives it an up-to-the-minute realism. Best of all, while his plot moves forward at breakneck speed, he never sacrifices character development for pace. All of his major players are fully realized people, not just pawns in an international chess match.
A thought-provoking thriller.Pub Date: May 13, 2012
ISBN: 978-1469966342
Page Count: 274
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: July 25, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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