The Scrooge is the same, but the message is muffled.
A chick-lit tweak of the Dickens classic.
Caroline’s soul is dead, all right. Clicking down the streets of Manhattan or through the hallways of the fashion magazine where she works, she leaves a slime trail of contempt and superiority wherever she goes. It’s Christmas Eve, and she’s set to spend the holiday alone, gifting herself with free swag she’s acquired as an editor. But the day goes downhill fast: The woman whose so-last-season boots Caroline sniffed at in the elevator turns out to be her new boss, who swiftly fires her; she’s dumped by her therapist; she has zero prospects for a date on New Year’s Eve (not that anybody could meet her standards); and her mother is apparently spending the holiday in (horrors!) Branson, Mo. Smith (Love Monkey, 2004) spends ample time establishing just how shallow Caroline is while pinpointing the tiny ember of human sympathy inside her (e.g., she misses her father). But eventually, the Marley stand-in (a ditzy roommate) and those three ghosts arrive: Past (a cover model), present (the UPS guy) and future (that creepy old skeleton) paint a portrait of a needy, rude and shallow woman who’s destined to life in flyover country if she’s not careful. The novel is stuffed with snarky wisecracks, many of which are utterly groan-worthy (a combination SUV-Volkswagen, for example, is called a HumBug). But the bigger problem is that Smith spreads himself too thin—he’s trying to imagine a Gotham stuffed with quirky folks (most notably a Spoonerism-spouting place-kicker for the New York Jets), while trying to adhere to Dickens’s redemption-tale template, yet he strains to make sure Caroline doesn’t become too sickly-sweet. What’s left is a morality tale that tries not to get into all that messy morality stuff—Caroline eventually concedes that other people are worth her time and care, but she’s making darn sure she remains the center of attention.
The Scrooge is the same, but the message is muffled.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2006
ISBN: 0-06-111987-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2006
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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