Kalpakian (Graceland, 1992, etc.) attempts the impossible—and the impossible wins in this relentlessly plotted, heaving bosom of a sequel to Victor Hugo's literary classic and recent stage phenomenon, Les Miserables. Poor little Cosette's tale starts as swiftly as a raging mob and turns just as ugly as the cholera epidemic of 1832 that sweeps across the land. Breathlessly, men and women attempt to flee or find safe haven from the disease and political turmoil of 19th- century France. Included in the màlÇe are some old favorites: the saintly Jean Valjean, Cosette's adoptive father; the menacing prostitutes, the ruffians and grubbers. But Kalpakian has given a distinctively modern spin to things: the high-born son-in-law, the upwardly mobile grandchild, the family business left to ruin. The family business is, in fact, the antiestablishment press La Lumiäre, which isn't much favored by the new Emperor, Napoleon III, who happens to be the father-in-law of Cosette's own son. Marius, Cosette's husband, will be disgraced and left for dead after being hunted down by relentless cop-pursuer Clerons, but will return in the final chapters to tie up remaining loose ends. Kalpakian's version does make some very neat plot references to its predecessor by having a character chased and hunted for year upon year, as well as having yet another character go underground to escape punishment for a trumped-up crime. Meanwhile, a number of melodramatic events lead to a highly combustible climax, one that foreshadows the inevitable cinematic event—the mini-series. Kalpakian's story darts and weaves as haphazardly as a fervent gang of revolutionaries. But the built-in audiences will enjoy the zeal of the tale even though finding themselves battle-weary if surviving to its end. Poor Cosette, that she didn't have more to do in her own life story. As the World Turns, without the humor. (First printing of 100,000; $l00,000 ad/promo; author tour)
Pub Date: July 14, 1995
ISBN: 0-06-017222-3
Page Count: 640
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.
Life lessons.
Angie Malone, the youngest of a big, warm Italian-American family, returns to her Pacific Northwest hometown to wrestle with various midlife disappointments: her divorce, Papa’s death, a downturn in business at the family restaurant, and, above all, her childlessness. After several miscarriages, she, a successful ad exec, and husband Conlan, a reporter, befriended a pregnant young girl and planned to adopt her baby—and then the birth mother changed her mind. Angie and Conlan drifted apart and soon found they just didn’t love each other anymore. Metaphorically speaking, “her need for a child had been a high tide, an overwhelming force that drowned them. A year ago, she could have kicked to the surface but not now.” Sadder but wiser, Angie goes to work in the struggling family restaurant, bickering with Mama over updating the menu and replacing the ancient waitress. Soon, Angie befriends another young girl, Lauren Ribido, who’s eager to learn and desperately needs a job. Lauren’s family lives on the wrong side of the tracks, and her mother is a promiscuous alcoholic, but Angie knows nothing of this sad story and welcomes Lauren into the DeSaria family circle. The girl listens in, wide-eyed, as the sisters argue and make wisecracks and—gee-whiz—are actually nice to each other. Nothing at all like her relationship with her sluttish mother, who throws Lauren out when boyfriend David, en route to Stanford, gets her pregnant. Will Lauren, who’s just been accepted to USC, let Angie adopt her baby? Well, a bit of a twist at the end keeps things from becoming too predictable.
Heartfelt, yes, but pretty routine.Pub Date: July 1, 2004
ISBN: 0-345-46750-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2004
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s...
The traumatic homecoming of a wounded warrior.
The daughter of alcoholics who left her orphaned at 17, Jolene “Jo” Zarkades found her first stable family in the military: She’s served over two decades, first in the army, later with the National Guard. A helicopter pilot stationed near Seattle, Jo copes as competently at home, raising two daughters, Betsy and Lulu, while trying to dismiss her husband Michael’s increasing emotional distance. Jo’s mettle is sorely tested when Michael informs her flatly that he no longer loves her. Four-year-old Lulu clamors for attention while preteen Betsy, mean-girl-in-training, dismisses as dweeby her former best friend, Seth, son of Jo’s confidante and fellow pilot, Tami. Amid these challenges comes the ultimate one: Jo and Tami are deployed to Iraq. Michael, with the help of his mother, has to take over the household duties, and he rapidly learns that parenting is much harder than his wife made it look. As Michael prepares to defend a PTSD-afflicted veteran charged with Murder I for killing his wife during a dissociative blackout, he begins to understand what Jolene is facing and to revisit his true feelings for her. When her helicopter is shot down under insurgent fire, Jo rescues Tami from the wreck, but a young crewman is killed. Tami remains in a coma and Jo, whose leg has been amputated, returns home to a difficult rehabilitation on several fronts. Her nightmares in which she relives the crash and other horrors she witnessed, and her pain, have turned Jo into a person her daughters now fear (which in the case of bratty Betsy may not be such a bad thing). Jo can't forgive Michael for his rash words. Worse, she is beginning to remind Michael more and more of his homicide client. Characterization can be cursory: Michael’s earlier callousness, left largely unexplained, undercuts the pathos of his later change of heart.
Less bleak than the subject matter might warrant—Hannah’s default outlook is sunny—but still, a wrenching depiction of war’s aftermath.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-312-57720-9
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Dec. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2012
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