Fenter provides worthy social commentary tucked inside this tender tale, but a languid delivery keeps the message from fully...
Teenager Cliff Kelly learns to balance his family’s values with a newfound independence in Fenter’s sequel to 2010’s The Ruin.
The novel begins in 1955, as Cliff returns home after spending a year living alone in a cliff dwelling near the rural Colorado community in which he grew up. After this period of self-reflection, Cliff resumes life armed with stronger character and confidence. These values are immediately tested when he deepens his relationship with Angelina, whose Catholic upbringing and Latino heritage clash with the Anglo-Christian Kelly family. Cliff befriends his former nemesis Hector and their relationship brings closure to events preceding his sojourn in the wilderness. Cliff’s family is a minority in the predominantly Latino area, and his outsider status lessens as Hector and Angelina educate Cliff on their culture’s customs and language. Cliff returns their favors by helping Hector with his schoolwork and showing Angelina the survival skills he cultivated during his solitude. Cliff introduces Angelina to beekeeping and the two work on capturing a swarm. During the process, Larry, a mentally unsound young man, threatens Cliff and Angelina, and the danger they encounter ultimately intensifies their bond. Cliff is a great role model for the book’s young adult audience, though parts involving Larry may not be appropriate for all readers. Teenagers will relate to Cliff’s struggles as he moves into adulthood and admire the mature choices he makes when confronts challenges. The book can also benefit parents raising kids coming of age in adverse societies. Yet the book’s pith—the importance of forgiveness, of forging common ground no matter how extreme the difference—become buried in longueurs describing the Colorado land, farming methods and bee-keeping procedures. The veracity of these expositions is undisputed, but they draw readers away from the nexus of messages Fenter imparts. The plot’s climactic moments slow from prolix dialogue; the cast of diverse characters all speak in the same formal, long-winded style. This implausible phrasing enervates the compelling, emotional moments between Cliff and Angelina—nevertheless, their relationship is inspiring.
Fenter provides worthy social commentary tucked inside this tender tale, but a languid delivery keeps the message from fully resonating.Pub Date: April 13, 2011
ISBN: 978-1461093473
Page Count: 298
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 3, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
