Moments of real vision, pathos and poetry, but never entirely convincing.
Cleverly conceived but sketchy first novel revisits John, Paul, George, and Ringo in an alternate 1987.
In this world, the Beatles broke up in 1962, when John Lennon walked out of Abbey Road Studios over management's decision to release treacle instead of honest rock-and-roll. George Harrison and Ringo Starr followed him back to Liverpool, but Paul McCartney followed his crowd-pleasing, bottom-line instinct (and Brian Epstein) to America. Without the Beatles, rock withered and the ’60s never became The Sixties. When we catch up with them, George is a Jesuit priest, teetering in and out of madness, John is an embittered crank on the dole tortured by visions of what might have been, and henpecked husband Ringo is his amusing, level-headed friend, rescuing Lennon from scrapes as they cadge drinks at the pubs, occasionally sitting in on gigs with other Mersey Beat has-beens like Gerry and the Pacemakers. McCartney, now Paul Montana, is a Vegas crooner, thrice-divorced (Nancy Sinatra was first), an embarrassing cross between Wayne Newton and Sammy Davis Jr. In crisis over the cancellation of his TV series, Paul decides to reunite the Beatles and recapture the flame of youth during his upcoming trip to perform for Queen Di. The novel plays out over one day in a Britain on the brink of being taken over by the far-right National Front; Julian Lennon is one of its rising stars. The now middle-aged boys drink and fight, perform and bond, struggle with the past, and finally accept their lots. Kirwan, leader of the Celtic band Black 47, first spun his fantasy as a play, and it shows. The characters are amalgams of identifying tics that would work better as stage business, and the larger political story playing out in the background feels like caulking slapped onto the joints between acts.
Moments of real vision, pathos and poetry, but never entirely convincing.Pub Date: June 1, 2003
ISBN: 1-56025-497-1
Page Count: 304
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
A steamy, glitzy, and tender tale of college intrigue.
In this opener to Kennedy’s (Hot & Bothered, 2017, etc.) Briar U romance series, two likable students keep getting their signals crossed.
Twenty-one-year-old Summer Heyward-Di Laurentis is expelled from Brown University in the middle of her junior year because she was responsible for a fire at the Kappa Beta Nu sorority house. Fortunately, her father has connections, so she’s now enrolled in Briar University, a prestigious institution about an hour outside Boston. But as she’s about to move into Briar’s Kappa Beta Nu house, she’s asked to leave by the sisters, who don’t want her besmirching their reputation. Her older brother Dean, who’s a former Briar hockey star, comes to her rescue; his buddies, who are still on the hockey team, need a fourth roommate for their townhouse. Three good-looking hockey jocks and a very rich, gorgeous fashion major under the same roof—what could go wrong? Summer becomes quickly infatuated with one of her housemates: Dean’s best friend Colin “Fitzy” Fitzgerald. There’s a definite spark between them, and they exchange smoldering looks, but the tattooed Fitzy, who’s also a video game reviewer and designer, is an introvert who prefers no “drama” in his life. Summer, however, is a charming extrovert, although she has an inferiority complex about her flagging scholastic acumen. As the story goes on, the pair seem to misinterpret each other’s every move. Meanwhile, another roommate and potential suitor, Hunter Davenport, is waiting in the wings. Kennedy’s novel is full of sex, alcohol, and college-level profanity, but it never becomes formulaic. The author adroitly employs snappy dialogue, steady pacing, and humor, as in a scene at a runway fashion show featuring Briar jocks parading in Summer-designed swimwear. The book also manages to touch on some serious subjects, including learning disabilities and abusive behavior by faculty members. Summer and Fitzy’s repeated stumbles propel the plot through engaging twists and turns; the characters trade off narrating the story, which gives each of them a chance to reveal some substance.
A steamy, glitzy, and tender tale of college intrigue.Pub Date: Aug. 6, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72482-199-7
Page Count: 372
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 28, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A presold prefab blockbuster, what with King's Carrie hitting the moviehouses, Salem's Lot being lensed, The Shining itself sold to Warner Bros. and tapped as a Literary Guild full selection, NAL paperback, etc. (enough activity to demand an afterlife to consummate it all).
The setting is The Overlook, a palatial resort on a Colorado mountain top, snowbound and closed down for the long, long winter. Jack Torrance, a booze-fighting English teacher with a history of violence, is hired as caretaker and, hoping to finish a five-act tragedy he's writing, brings his wife Wendy and small son Danny to the howling loneliness of the half-alive and mad palazzo. The Overlook has a gruesome past, scenes from which start popping into the present in various suites and the ballroom. At first only Danny, gifted with second sight (he's a "shiner"), can see them; then the whole family is being zapped by satanic forces. The reader needs no supersight to glimpse where the story's going as King's formula builds to a hotel reeling with horrors during Poesque New Year's Eve revelry and confetti outta nowhere....
Back-prickling indeed despite the reader's unwillingness at being mercilessly manipulated.
Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1976
ISBN: 0385121679
Page Count: 453
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1976
PERSPECTIVES
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