A debut novel that details a young man’s search for his roots in the Missouri Ozarks.
JC Eagle, a recent college graduate, knows little about his family background, other than that his mother was Native American and his father, whom he never met, was white. This lack of concrete knowledge about his forebears has been a lacuna in his life since he was in grade school, so he returns to his hometown of Yarbell, checks into a local boardinghouse and goes on a search for his father’s identity. He also reintegrates into his old community, which he finds is unwilling or unable to care about contaminated water and the machinations of a major corporation, as he connects with his Cherokee roots. DeHaven is clearly extremely familiar with this part of the United States, and he draws a precise portrait for the many readers who have little or no knowledge of its geography or customs. The novel also does a fair job of presenting its main character’s day-to-day life. However, the plot is, if anything, a bit overstuffed. The narration frequently shifts from past to present tense and back again, even within the same paragraph, which lends it an uneven, jerky quality. There’s an unpleasant academic tone as well, as if the author couldn’t quite decide whether to write a novel or an anthropology text; it would have been preferable, for example, if some facts were woven more seamlessly into the story (“In the Ozarks, it was taken for granted that a visitor was to be offered food and/or drink. There was no discussion about whether there was time. There was going to be something to eat and/or drink and there was going to be visiting”). Also, like that other JC, the main character is presented as something of a prophet, which, along with the novel’s liberal use of biblical quotations, can be off-putting.
Readers may find much of interest in this coming-of-age tale, but those with a low tolerance for didacticism may want to sit this one out.
Pub Date: Sept. 19, 2013
ISBN: 978-1621373469
Page Count: 302
Publisher: Virtualbookworm.com Publishing
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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