THE GQ CANDIDATE

Name: THE GQ CANDIDATE
Author: Keli Goff
ISBN: 978-1-4391-5872-2

by Keli Goff ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 5, 2011

The novel ends on a cliffhanger—all to the good, except it presupposes that the reader will have slogged through to the end...

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The president is now not only black but also Jewish, and the tea partiers are having fits.

Well, not quite: Like Sammy Davis Jr., Luke Cooper wasn’t entirely born with those credentials, and the presidential election is still three years off when we meet him. Governor Cooper is one of the youngest state executives in the nation, and, as Goff writes by way of introduction, “widely recognized as a rising national star in the Democratic Party.” His wife Laura—try not to think of General Hospital—hates politics but is willing to support Luke as he follows his bliss, even willing to try to keep up with his sartorial splendor, for Luke knows how to rock an Armani suit. Although he’s been dubbed “the GQ Candidate,” he’s an amateur compared to some of the folks in his moneyed circle, powerful lawyers and hedge-fund managers who broker a dozen deals before breakfast and live lives befitting a Roman emperor. All of these things have political consequences; one of his confidants, for instance, figures in the news from time to time in articles “claiming that he had used his relationship with the governor as leverage for business opportunities,” with said confidant himself proclaiming, “The gov and I are like family. After all he wouldn’t be governor without me so you have nothing to worry about.” It’s anyone’s guess whether the author or the confidant is the one guilty of crimes against the English language, but this novel is flat and uninvolving, its characters shallow; what isn’t transparently borrowed from a certain real-life well-dressed president of color (hey, look, there’s Rahm Emanuel!) drifts by unremarkably. Goff's imagining of an ugly primary campaign in which mud is flung and bedclothes slung could have come from the headlines, too, while the stuff requiring imagination seems an afterthought.

The novel ends on a cliffhanger—all to the good, except it presupposes that the reader will have slogged through to the end of this overlong, unrewarding debut.

Pub Date: July 5, 2011

ISBN: 978-1-4391-5872-2

Page Count: 384

Publisher: Atria

Review Posted Online: June 28, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2011

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

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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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

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TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

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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.