by Kerry Hardie ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 22, 2006
In a voice uncompromisingly tough, without the witty charm or sugarcoating of so much contemporary female-driven fiction,...
Irish poet and novelist Hardie (A Winter Marriage, 2002) digs deep into issues of morality and identity through the voice of a Protestant woman from Derry coming to terms with her inexplicable healing powers while living in Southern Ireland with her Catholic husband.
College student Ellen, daughter of a no-nonsense teacher, marries a conventional, working-class Protestant boy from Belfast. After their daughter dies at birth, Ellen foresees the death of an acquaintance and has a mental breakdown. Out of the hospital but still fragile within her marriage and her sanity, Ellen meets Liam, a sculptor and stonemason. Although she fights it, she recognizes he is her destiny. She leaves her husband and moves to Southern Ireland with Catholic Liam, whom she eventually marries. As much as she loves Liam and enjoys their life with their two children, his friends and his warm, accepting family, Ellen remains an outsider. Infused with the grittier, more violent energy of the Protestant North, she cannot accept the Catholic South’s soft ease. She is also painfully aware that she’s clairvoyant. Although part of Liam’s initial appeal lay in seeing that clairvoyance as a gift, not a sickness, she feels pressured by his embrace of her power. When he discovers Ellen can also heal by touching, Liam nudges her to cash in on it, and she reluctantly bends to his will. Her one friend is Catherine, an emotionally needy but appealing ex-nun who makes commercially popular pottery. When Ellen discovers Catherine’s brief affair with Liam, her life falls apart. Then she learns that her long-estranged mother is approaching death. Returning to the North, Ellen faces realities she has avoided, both about her family of origin and about the family she has created with Liam.
In a voice uncompromisingly tough, without the witty charm or sugarcoating of so much contemporary female-driven fiction, Hardie creates resonant characters unafraid to navigate through the contradictions inherent in every life.Pub Date: Aug. 22, 2006
ISBN: 0-316-07623-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2006
Share your opinion of this book
More by Kerry Hardie
BOOK REVIEW
by Kerry Hardie
BOOK REVIEW
by Kerry Hardie
by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
Share your opinion of this book
More by J.D. Salinger
BOOK REVIEW
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
Share your opinion of this book
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
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.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.