The author of Velocity (1988) lives up to the acclaim of her notable debut in a sultry second novel—a visceral, earthy portrait of 1980s New York City life as seen through the eyes of a New Mexican transplant. Sensing that life is bigger than the desert from which she hails, 23-year-old tabula rasa Claire takes $500 and moves into a tiny apartment in TriBeCa. She temps by day, returns home at night, and spends all of her spare time deeply inhaling the dirty, wondrous city. Alone and getting lonely, she meets neighbor Jade, who's as wild as Claire is innocent: Jade speaks many languages, wears few clothes, and never runs out of money. Claire is dazzled. The two become wine-drinking pals, then confidantes (their friendship briefly complicated by Claire's boyfriend Tommy's visit), and finally, one boozy, clubbing night, lovers. The awkward morning-after marks a relationship hiatus: Jade abruptly jets to Paris, Berlin, Tibet; Claire lands a permanent job at an environmental law firm. But she misses Jade and, in a bout of confused homesickness, returns to New Mexico to confirm that Tommy's not her guy and the desert's not her place. She and Jade converge in New York. Will they reconcile? Will Claire ever really know the secretive, seductive girl next door? The ending (incongruously abrupt and improbable) forces Claire to seize her fate. Up to then she had drifted aimlessly, wide-eyed at the vast space and liberty she'd discovered. Readers will be at home in McCloy's clean prose—always vibrant and sensual—and in the disarmingly fresh view she creates from unassuming Claire's perspective. Even New Yorkers will see New York for the first time. Youthful, downtown (and lesbian) content stunningly draped in polished, uptown style. (Quality Paperback Book Club selection)
Pub Date: Aug. 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-525-93837-0
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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