bookshelf

LOW RENT

Name: LOW RENT
Author: Kurt Hollander
ISBN: 0-8021-3408-4

A DECADE OF WRITING FROM THE PORTABLE LOWER EAST SIDE

edited by Kurt Hollander ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1994

bookshelf

A welcome opportunity for book readers to discover the pleasures of a periodical that was to the Reagan-Bush era what Evergreen Review was to the 1950s. Begun by Hollander in the mid-1980s as a photocopied and stapled bundle, The Portable Lower East Side got some unwanted national exposure in 1992, when conservatives used it as an example of the obscene and blasphemous material funded by the National Endowment for the Arts. Now it can be read on its own terms. New York City's Lower East Side is as much a state of mind as a literal neighborhood: Wherever there are drugs and sex, you're likely to find some of these contributors. When Veronica Vera decided to write an article about ``the game of sex and money,'' she went to The Forty-Second Street Show World Sex Emporium, interviewed employees, and worked one of the ``booths'' herself to gain firsthand experience. Christopher O'Connell's ``Williamsburg Seizure Sites'' details epileptic seizures that, ironically, sound almost identical to the drug-induced states captured by other contributors. Some of the finest stories and memoirs present New York City as viewed by newcomers. Jack Henry Abbott, just released from prison, offers a chilling portrait of the Bowery in 1981, depicting street life that later spread throughout New York City; his increasingly staid, unflinching reactions parallel those of many city-dwellers. Guy-Mark Foster follows the man he loves to a city he knows almost nothing about (except that it's not nearly as clean or peaceful as they city they've left). Hubert Selby, Herbert Huncke, Grace Paley, and photographer Robert Frank are among the better-known contributors. Pieces by Italian, Russian, Hungarian, and Cuban immigrants—some translated from the authors' foreign-language originals—recapture the melting-pot flavor the area had 100 years ago, but with a decidedly contemporary in-your-face quality. Some will be offended, but this groundbreaking volume's artistic merit is indisputable.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1994

ISBN: 0-8021-3408-4

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Grove

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1994

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

bookshelf

SUMMER ISLAND

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2001

The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...

bookshelf

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

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

bookshelf

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

by Harper Lee ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 11, 1960

bookshelf

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.