Somewhat superficial, funny, and short.
A college junior with an advice column discovers that following her own counsel is easier said than done.
Harriet lives a fairly standard college life: hanging out with her two closest friends, going to classes, drinking, and enduring hangovers—all while secretly dispensing wisdom to peers in her advice column, "Dear Emma." Each week, students write in with dating and friendship problems, and Harriet replies with clearheaded and thoughtful solutions. After all, Harriet’s been an observer for so long that she’s developed a knack for identifying the hidden fault lines in others’ lives. But when she meets the enigmatic Keith in her Spanish Civil War class, everything changes; she’s finally at the center of her own drama, and the weeks that follow are a flurry of excitement, study dates, and road trips. As their texts fizzle out, though, Harriet’s plunged into despair. As she continues to harp on Keith, everything seems to be going wrong around her: she’s fighting with her roommate; going to the civil war class is torture; she spots a pretty girl writing on Keith’s Facebook wall. Things get interesting when that girl, a senior named Remy, begins working the same library shift as Harriet, whom she begrudgingly begins to befriend; and when Remy writes Emma asking whether she should break things off with Keith, Harriet is forced to re-evaluate the way she views guys, friendship, and the integrity of her column. Heaney’s (Never Have I Ever, 2014) debut novel is a relatable depiction of modern college romance, and Harriet, despite her annoying obsession with Keith, has an endearingly humorous voice (“I have been waiting my whole life to quiz a hot guy in the library and now that it’s here I’m like, not ready”). However, the novel’s scope is so limited that it may not hold readers’ attention. College can indeed be a bubble, but Harriet’s sole focus on guys and day-to-day dramas precludes more complicated or long-term plotlines—which could have transformed Harriet from a merely humorous character into a well-rounded, satisfying one.
Somewhat superficial, funny, and short.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-455-53460-9
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
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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