Strong, wide-ranging tales that more than fulfill the promise of the author’s first book.
In the year 2000, as the millennium shifts, the characters in these 11 short stories shift their own perceptions by connecting with others.
Behar (Turn the Page, 2015, etc.) explains in an author’s note that he first drafted these tales in 1998 and 2002; as a result, a millennial preoccupation with change is at the heart of this well-observed collection. In the opening story, “Death Threats,” a struggling rock band finds itself making a devil’s bargain with Jennifer Newman, the daughter of a hated radio station owner. They’d hoped to manipulate her father by getting her to sing with them; soon, as the band’s lead singer, she brings them new success, but the narrator misses their old freedom, which is gone like Jennifer’s former pudginess: “they swear 2000 is the year we make it big…[but] when I look at Jennifer’s washboard stomach, all I can think about is what we’ve lost.” As this example shows, change can be transformative but also uncomfortable—or even strange, as in the story “Seepage.” In it, a suburban couple’s sweaty sensuality, symbolized by a fuel oil leak, at first disgusts their straight-laced neighbors, only to later become a welcome, if unwholesome, seduction. Other stories, told from first- and third-person perspectives, explore a range of viewpoints, including that of a young boy puzzled by his Chinese friend’s grandmother and her superstitions; those of a 30-ish yuppie couple hoping to adopt a Russian boy; and that of a young woman going fishing with her boyfriend. In all these situations, Behar ably employs a flexible, natural voice to trace his characters’ realizations. For example, in the final story, a makeup artist for a flamboyant women’s wrestling team describes an unlikely but dramatic romance between a fan and a wrestler: “I held out for a guy who would look at me the way Red had looked at Mount Fuji. It took fifteen years for that guy to come along. It was worth the wait.”
Strong, wide-ranging tales that more than fulfill the promise of the author’s first book.Pub Date: Nov. 25, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5393-3015-8
Page Count: 212
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 23, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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