Sugary New Age nonsense cripples Grimwood's (Replay, 1986, etc.) mildly inventive eco-thriller, in which humans and dolphins join forces to save Santa Barbara, Calif., from volcanic disaster. Dolphins, it turns out, employ a sophisticated imaging language to talk to each other; their conversations consist of sonic pictures rather than grammatically arranged words. Scientist Sheila Roberts makes this discovery at almost the same time that she learns of her own status as a telepathic Linker, selected in childhood by the dolphins to act as a contact for the New Directives, a program of interspecies cooperation commissioned by the omniscient Sources (whales) and pursued by members of dolphin society who possess the Linking Talent. Sheila has two Linker confederates, also chosen by the dolphins: her lover, Daniel Colter, a gruff young journalist, and Antonio Batera, a salty old Portuguese tuna fisherman whose boat is responsible for routine dolphin/porpoise slaughters. They're eventually joined by petroleum engineer Jeb Sloane, whose high-tech, laser-drilling oil rig imperils Santa Barbara; by inadvertently punching into an unknown magma chamber, the corporation he works for is about to unleash the molten fury of the planet's core. Jeb's not a Linker, but Sheila and Daniel have no trouble convincing him to help them steal the drilling equipment to divert the underwater eruption harmlessly out to sea, especially after he sees videotaped dolphin-images warning of the potential threat. Grimwood manages to cram several dolphin characters into all this as well: Ch*Tril, a dolphin historian, along with her mate, Dj\Tal (both are capable of linking), struggle to bring the New Directives to humanity while fighting a bloody civil war with their killer-whale Death-Cousins. The whole story transpires under the placid watchfulness of the Sources' universal mind, which has decided to interrupt the human march of environmental destruction. Just the sort of thing dolphins would make fun of, if they could read.
Pub Date: Feb. 24, 1995
ISBN: 0-688-08799-X
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 1994
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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