From freshman orientation to graduation ceremonies for Notre Dame's Class of '93, Coyne (A Day in the Night of America, 1992) presents a lavishly detailed, day-to-day look at a year under the shadow of the Dome. The school kicked off its sesquicentennial year by welcoming 1,882 freshman, who represented the top 10% of their high school classes. Coyne attended lectures, classes, meetings, parties, rallies, and, of course, football games. Inescapably, a Notre Dame school year revolves around the legendary football program and the ``tightly scripted extravaganzas'' of game weekends. But it's not all football and rah-rah at ol' Notre Dame. Coyne follows the exploits of several students from Keenan Hall, including freshman roommates Patrick Lyons and Steve Sabo, and their live-in rector, Bonaventure Scully. The dorm's annual revue would feature doo-wop singers and skits that, ``like most college humor, tended toward the outer limits of good taste.'' There's also Rachel Stehle, a trumpeter with the marching band; Lou Blaum, a senior member of the vaunted Irish Guard, the kilted corps that leads the band into the stadium; Claire Johnson, co-president of a campus anti-abortion group; Chris Setti, a leader of the minority College Democrats, and Joe Carrigan, a boxer favored to win the 150-pound division of the school's annual Bengal Bouts. Coyne also spends time with school president Edward ``Monk'' Malloy and Father Bob Derby, a revered history professor who swears he'll ``die with a piece of chalk in [his] hand,'' and takes a look back at the late Frank O'Malley, ``Notre Dame's Mr. Chips'' and the rare layman buried in the Holy Cross cemetery. Overall looms the Knute Rockne legend, whose influence was felt in 1992 upon the death of longtime athletic director Moose Krause, who first came to Notre Dame in 1931 at Rockne's urging. Coyne captures the spirit and tradition of this unique institution and penetrates the glow of the golden dome with an objective look at the academic, political, and social life of its people. (First printing of 50,000; $50,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: Sept. 28, 1995
ISBN: 0-670-85005-5
Page Count: 329
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1995
Odd musings and wanderings in out-of-the-way places: an intricate fable from a popular German novelist, now making his US debut. Graham Greene casts a long shadow through Kirchhoff's narrative, in style if not in tone. The center of attention is Kurt Lukas, a German fashion model who comes to rest on a suitably godforsaken Philippine island full of European priests. For reasons that are never fully hinted at—much less made clear—Kurt has decided to drop out of things for a while, and the mission fathers (who seem only marginally more balanced than he is) take him in gladly and do their best to keep him. They are helped along by Mayla, their orphaned housekeeper and surrogate daughter, who wastes no time in seducing Kurt with her virginity. The impending revolution that hovers in the background makes the seclusion of Kurt and Mayla's pastorale all the weirder—as does the fact that every single one of the priests is in love with her and makes a point of confessing his sexual transgressions to Kurt at the earliest opportunity. There is a real power and elegance in Kirchhoff's story, but it is one that requires a realistic (rather than imaginative) background—otherwise, the subtle economy of metaphor and suggestion will be (and is) overwhelmed and swallowed up by a tide of fantasy. How much of the book's weakness can be ascribed to the (clear and generally quite readable) translation is uncertain, but there is an unquestionable gap between the depth and assurance of the author's descriptive powers and the overall flatness of the work as a whole. A beautiful mess that could've worked: too much is built upon too slight a foundation.
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-670-84261-3
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1992
An accessible, ultimately skewed argument for moral-values education. Lickona (Education/SUNY at Cortland; Raising Good Children, 1983) sees respect and responsibility as the fourth and fifth R`s, and he presents his case for values education in a soothing no- exceptions voice with lots of examples from satisfied teachers and parents. He believes schools should teach specific moral values— not emphasize the process of moral choice, as Kohlberg first espoused in the 70's—and though he anticipates some kinds of resistance, he has counterarguments for many objections, even that of the girl who despairs, ``We don't want to be ethical all the time.'' When Lickona identifies broadly shared values (honesty, caring), repeats teachers' anecdotes, or acknowledges the importance of narrative in engaging children in moral discussion, he sounds reasonably in command of the his material, drawing on major theorists (Gardner, Goodlad), offering many kinds of strategies—to foster cooperative attitudes, to assure timely homework-assignment completion—and acknowledging that changes don't happen quickly. But when he leaves common classroom issues for the more complicated and controversial problems of our age— sex, AIDS, abortion—he reveals a bias that some readers will reject. Lickona's book is written ``for God'' and his ideas- -values—relating to sex education are the strongest expression of that devotion. He opposes all premarital sex and sees both homosexuality and masturbation as violations of ``God's imperative that sex be reserved for a man and woman united in marriage.'' Lickona goes beyond Tipper Gore in recognizing forces outside the school that put stress on young lives, and he knows the influence of a school's moral climate (``Schools inevitably teach good or bad values in everything they do''), so for many this neatly organized dismissal of relativist approaches will be a call to action, a schoolhouse extension of Raising Good Children. For others, his underlying beliefs and impatience with genuine contradiction will be the larger issue.
Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-553-07570-5
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1991
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