An ambitious, well-written novel that delivers a message of hope tucked between elements of romance, mystery and sci-fi.
A paranormal tale that traces the paths of four individuals wrestling with anxiety.
Spiritual counselor and debut novelist Lohret inquires into the nature of our existence in a work with three parts whose titles—“Asleep,” “Remember” and “Awake”—seemingly reflect the characters’ psyches. In Part I, it appears that the well-drawn, flawed yet likable main characters may become romantically intertwined. They’re each haunted by fears: Twenty-nine-year-old Jake, a successful Manhattan real estate developer, has recurrent nightmares about the city and visions of a beautiful woman; divorced single-mother Liz tries to comprehend the significance of her 5-year-old daughter’s imaginary adult playmate; Army veteran David struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder; and writer Maré is at work penning a short story while grappling with memories of an unhappy childhood and finding a way out of an abusive relationship. Instead of eventually meeting up at a singles’ bar, however, the characters cross paths through the mediation of their spiritual alter egos, who are introduced in Part II following a vast geologic upheaval on Earth evidently caused by fracking. Jacob, Lizalia, Daveed and Maree—the characters’ counterparts—inhabit Gaia, a planet more advanced than Earth. When scientists of Gaia become concerned that Earth is at a breaking point due to its inhabitants’ lack of concern for their planet and for each other, Gaia emissaries are sent to Earth to try to help. In Part III, the original characters survive a massive earthquake, apparently aided by their spiritual counterparts—or have they always been one and the same? For instance, Jake and Maré, who had “been finding each other in their dreams for years,” are now a couple. Although Lohret carefully constructs the characters and their environments in Part I, the ensuing parts are far shorter and less developed, requiring more patience and effort from readers looking to understand the story.
An ambitious, well-written novel that delivers a message of hope tucked between elements of romance, mystery and sci-fi.Pub Date: Dec. 24, 2012
ISBN: 978-0988713215
Page Count: 404
Publisher: Three Sisters Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 17, 2016
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
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