bookshelf

THE LOST TAVERN

Name: THE LOST TAVERN
Author: Kerry Brown
ISBN: 978-1452082097

A PIRATE'S ODYSSEY

by Kerry Brown & Chris Kelly ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 14, 2011

Brown and Kelly create a richly detailed world, but need to more seamlessly marry facts with story.

bookshelf

Brown, with assistance from researcher and co-author Kelly, debuts with this historical novel of piracy and Colonial America.

Young Maria Hallett, having lost both her parents, works as a governess to her aunt’s children in early 18th-century Cape Cod. Her friend Isaac Doane is employed at the novel’s namesake tavern, and although he is enamored of Ms. Hallett, his shyness prevents him from becoming her suitor. But that’s not the case for historical pirate “Black Sam” Bellamy, who strides ashore, swiftly sweeps Maria off her feet and leaves her with child while he goes plundering in the West Indies for several months. By the time he returns to the coast of Massachusetts, circumstances have changed for the worse, as the child has passed away and Maria is being held criminally accountable. Although the real Bellamy died in a storm before reaching land, Brown and Kelly imagine what would have happened had he lived and found his way back into Maria’s life. The book’s often gorgeous descriptions and impressive vocabulary help bring the world of Colonial New England to life, through its flora, fauna, geography and people. The characters populating Brown and Kelly’s world, both fictional and fictionalized, are imbued with great depth. The authors’ zeal to bring so much of their vast research to the page, however, creates problems for the narrative, as the story is consistently interrupted by italicized sections of commentary, some of which reads like informational footnotes and all of which is distracting if not beside the point. And while scene-setting is essential to a book such as this, too often the plot is forced to sit still for it, and too much of the action—including most of the actual pirating—takes place off the page.

Brown and Kelly create a richly detailed world, but need to more seamlessly marry facts with story.

Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2011

ISBN: 978-1452082097

Page Count: 272

Publisher: AuthorHouse

Review Posted Online: March 4, 2011

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

bookshelf

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE LAND OF SWEET FOREVER
by Harper Lee ; edited by Casey Cep

- BOOK REVIEW
GO SET A WATCHMAN
by Harper Lee

- SEEN & HEARD
The Snowy Day Is NYC Library’s Most Popular Book

- SEEN & HEARD
ALA Releases List of 2020’s Most Challenged Books

- SEEN & HEARD
NYT Readers Voting on Best Book of Past 125 Years

bookshelf

THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

bookshelf

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.