Humorous touches and a likeable protagonist make this heartwarming tale a treat.
An entertaining coming-of-age story set in 1963 Kansas City.
Vincent (In Search of Motif No. 1, 2011) tells the story of Howard Block, a 12-year-old boy who’s usually one of the last kids picked for gym-class teams. His life is consumed by preparations for his bar mitzvah and his friend Mike’s invented adventures. All that changes, though, when he learns that his doctor father is facing an unfair malpractice suit. Howard, Mike, their friend Stinky and his housekeeper’s son, become amateur spies in an effort to save Howard’s father’s good name. First, they plan to steal a medical file from the home of his father’s rival—who happens to be the father of Howard’s school crush. When Plan A fails, they employ Plan B—secretly recording a conversation with the patient bringing the lawsuit—but they’re thwarted by a hungry mouse. Plan C sees the boys breaking into a synagogue basement to use recording equipment there, but yet another mix-up makes Howard think that it might be time to accept defeat. The novel’s colorful cast—including Howard’s mother, a constant worrier, and his father, who’s easiest to speak to while he’s seated on the toilet—add humor and realism to the story. The novel’s profanity, as well as its more poetic moments (“Old Mission Hills was his allure, with its winding and lush tree-lined streets and stately homes…where the rich could meander and stroll along the lanes and drives and cul-de-sacs.”) mark it as most appropriate for older YA readers. Adults, meanwhile, will likely enjoy Howard’s wise-beyond-his-years nature. The historical setting provides a rich backdrop to the action, and the spy capers keep the story moving along at a quick pace.
Humorous touches and a likeable protagonist make this heartwarming tale a treat.Pub Date: July 11, 2013
ISBN: 978-1489542212
Page Count: 276
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Sept. 23, 2013
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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More faithful to the original but less astonishing than Christopher Logue’s work and lacking some of the music of Fagles’...
Fresh version of one of the world’s oldest epic poems, a foundational text of Western literature.
Sing to me, O muse, of the—well, in the very opening line, the phrase Wilson (Classical Studies, Univ. of Pennsylvania) chooses is the rather bland “complicated man,” the adjective missing out on the deviousness implied in the Greek polytropos, which Robert Fagles translated as “of twists and turns.” Wilson has a few favorite words that the Greek doesn’t strictly support, one of them being “monstrous,” meaning something particularly heinous, and to have Telemachus “showing initiative” seems a little report-card–ish and entirely modern. Still, rose-fingered Dawn is there in all her glory, casting her brilliant light over the wine-dark sea, and Wilson has a lively understanding of the essential violence that underlies the complicated Odysseus’ great ruse to slaughter the suitors who for 10 years have been eating him out of palace and home and pitching woo to the lovely, blameless Penelope; son Telemachus shows that initiative, indeed, by stringing up a bevy of servant girls, “their heads all in a row / …strung up with the noose around their necks / to make their death an agony.” In an interesting aside in her admirably comprehensive introduction, which extends nearly 80 pages, Wilson observes that the hanging “allows young Telemachus to avoid being too close to these girls’ abused, sexualized bodies,” and while her reading sometimes tends to be overly psychologized, she also notes that the violence of Odysseus, by which those suitors “fell like flies,” mirrors that of some of the other ungracious hosts he encountered along his long voyage home to Ithaca.
More faithful to the original but less astonishing than Christopher Logue’s work and lacking some of the music of Fagles’ recent translations of Homer; still, a readable and worthy effort.Pub Date: Nov. 7, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-393-08905-9
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2017
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