Despite a less-than-formidable villain in Huff, and a tortuously convoluted plot, there’s much to entertain and engage...
Cajuns battle Big Oil to protect their bayou patrimony in Well’s farcical fourth (Logan’s Storm, 2002, etc.).
Justin and Grace Pitre haven’t a worry in the world, except getting pregnant at the bayou “camp” left to Justin by his grandfather and wondering if Justin will ever best Grace’s record catch of a 40-pound redfish. But the forces of capitalism have no concern for the idyllic existence of a couple of Acadians, nor for the fragile ecosystem of the Louisiana bayous, where habitats are compromised by pollution, salt water inroads on freshwater swamps and the heavy footprint of the oil industry operating in the Gulf of Mexico. Tom Huff, diminutive tyrant who runs Big Tex’s oil interests in Louisiana, wants to speed up oil shipments by dredging a channel through Justin’s land. He’s also illegally dumping toxic sludge in coastal swamps, causing massive fish kills. Louisiana’s “Guv,” Joe T. Evangeline, sympathizes with a coalition of swamp rats opposing the destruction of the state’s wetlands. A reformed womanizer, he longs to court jolie-laide Julie, environmentalist attorney. He regrets accepting a bribe from Huff during a booze-fueled jaunt to Vegas. Big Tex’s rival Oka-Tex is surveilling the dumping, as is tree-hugging rabble-rouser “Dr. Duck.” Meanwhile, Tom’s new secretary and paramour Daisy is spying on him for whatever tiny segment of law enforcement is not on Tom’s payroll. Remember Justin? Through a corrupt chain of events, his father Wilson’s job and retirement are threatened, forcing Justin to cede the right-of-way to Big Tex. But he can’t resist sinking the dredging rig sent in to dig up the Camp. Now fugitives, Justin and Grace kidnap Evangeline. But Huff is about to be brought down anyway. Big Tex is fixing to sell him out, along with their Louisiana division, to Oka-Tex.
Despite a less-than-formidable villain in Huff, and a tortuously convoluted plot, there’s much to entertain and engage crawfish, jambalaya and Dixie beer aficionados, not the least Wells’ sharp ear for dialogue and his Cajun nostalgia for the “forest primeval.”Pub Date: Oct. 30, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-375-50876-9
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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