An uneven novel whose disparate parts make a sexual awakening ridiculous and sometimes apocalyptic but that offers a keen...
In an unabashedly erotic novel, Kneen (Steeplechase, 2013, etc.) follows the science fiction–flavored adventures of a young woman whose sexual awakening is set into motion by works of classic erotic literature.
Holly White is fascinated by sex but remains a virgin. This is partially because she and her best friends—all beautiful, privileged college students—have made a pact of chastity and wear rings engraved with the words “true love waits.” It's also partially because when Holly finds herself aroused, a glowing blue wetness emerges from between her legs, and this abnormality, a potential “beacon” of lust, shames and disturbs her. When she stumbles into an invitation to join Sex Club, a book club that discusses the erotic classics, she finds both intellectual excitement and the nerve to pursue her sexual freedom. At first, Holly’s explorations follow the predictable narrative of a girl flinging aside her cloistered youth for a bohemian discovery of womanhood, complete with endless and tiresomely described trysts. As the novel progresses, her escapades become stranger and stranger, and the story takes a breakneck left turn into a bizarre realm of science-fiction lunacy. Kneen attempts to weave threads of this strangeness throughout the novel—dwelling on Holly’s ectoplasmlike affliction and dipping into a secondary storyline about a scientist and the machines he built to collect the energy of orgasms—but the surreal elements feel unbalanced and awkward. They get in the way of the novel’s most pleasurable aspect: an infectious enthusiasm for the books that fuel the emotional action. Reading about Holly reading James Salter, Angela Carter, and a slew of others and finding the experience so wholeheartedly transformative makes the reading list in the back of the book irresistible.
An uneven novel whose disparate parts make a sexual awakening ridiculous and sometimes apocalyptic but that offers a keen appreciation of the erotic writing of others.Pub Date: Jan. 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-922079-38-1
Page Count: 293
Publisher: Text
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2015
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
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
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