The literary equivalent of the titular trail: it takes time to reach the end, but the trek is worth it.
A man hiking on the Appalachian Trail recollects the loves and losses he’s experienced throughout his 128 years in Robinson’s (Life in Continuum, 2012, etc.) epic drama.
In 2087, Carlton Jeffries is documenting his long life. He’s on the Appalachian Trail with his dog, Sam, having thru-hiked it twice before. Born in Tennessee in 1958, Carlton grows into a teenager who finds young love to be sometimes fleeting. He endures a dispirited marriage and spiteful divorce but ultimately starts a family. His unusually lengthy lifespan, however, means that he has to watch people die, including his grandchildren, and reside in a country whose government has all but crumbled. Robinson’s novel, boasting nearly 750 pages, is ample in its historical details. Most events, such as Sen. Robert Kennedy’s assassination or the 1986 Challenger tragedy, are like background music, enriching the story without directly affecting its protagonist. But others have considerable impact, such as when loved ones don’t return from war. The easy-to-follow tale bounces from 2087 to a chronological account of Carlton’s life and his previous times hiking the trail—once in 1976 as a teenager and then, later, when he’s almost 50. Even the loyal Sam has his own timeline: in the 1970s, Carlton gets a puppy named Langley, who, as it turns out, is Sam’s ancestor. Later chapters in the future setting are downright dystopian but undeniably fascinating: noteworthy occurrences include Congress granting power to individual states, resulting in Carlton needing a passport to travel outside of Tennessee, and a ghastly new source of fuel. The Appalachian Trail, meanwhile, is the narrative’s constant; Carlton meets and falls in love with Judith during his first hike, and he eventually shares his veneration of the trail with his daughter, Rachel. The story’s so expansive that readers will grow attached to Carlton, even if he’s occasionally at fault for his severed relationships. It can be a depressing affair since he outlives so many people, but Robinson’s ability to generate an emotional response is without question.
The literary equivalent of the titular trail: it takes time to reach the end, but the trek is worth it.Pub Date: July 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5143-6449-9
Page Count: 748
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
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.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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