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
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.
Sisters work together to solve a child-abandonment case.
Ellie and Julia Cates have never been close. Julia is shy and brainy; Ellie gets by on charm and looks. Their differences must be tossed aside when a traumatized young girl wanders in from the forest into their hometown in Washington. The sisters’ professional skills are put to the test. Julia is a world-renowned child psychologist who has lost her edge. She is reeling from a case that went publicly sour. Though she was cleared of all wrongdoing, Julia’s name was tarnished, forcing her to shutter her Beverly Hills practice. Ellie Barton is the local police chief in Rain Valley, who’s never faced a tougher case. This is her chance to prove she is more than just a fading homecoming queen, but a scarcity of clues and a reluctant victim make locating the girl’s parents nearly impossible. Ellie places an SOS call to her sister; she needs an expert to rehabilitate this wild-child who has been living outside of civilization for years. Confronted with her professional demons, Julia once again has the opportunity to display her talents and salvage her reputation. Hannah (The Things We Do for Love, 2004, etc.) is at her best when writing from the girl’s perspective. The feral wolf-child keeps the reader interested long after the other, transparent characters have grown tiresome. Hannah’s torturously over-written romance passages are stale, but there are surprises in store as the sisters set about unearthing Alice’s past and creating a home for her.
Wacky plot keeps the pages turning and enduring schmaltzy romantic sequences.Pub Date: March 1, 2006
ISBN: 0-345-46752-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2005
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.
A violent surfacing of adolescence (which has little in common with Tarkington's earlier, broadly comic, Seventeen) has a compulsive impact.
"Nobody big except me" is the dream world of Holden Caulfield and his first person story is down to the basic, drab English of the pre-collegiate. For Holden is now being bounced from fancy prep, and, after a vicious evening with hall- and roommates, heads for New York to try to keep his latest failure from his parents. He tries to have a wild evening (all he does is pay the check), is terrorized by the hotel elevator man and his on-call whore, has a date with a girl he likes—and hates, sees his 10 year old sister, Phoebe. He also visits a sympathetic English teacher after trying on a drunken session, and when he keeps his date with Phoebe, who turns up with her suitcase to join him on his flight, he heads home to a hospital siege. This is tender and true, and impossible, in its picture of the old hells of young boys, the lonesomeness and tentative attempts to be mature and secure, the awful block between youth and being grown-up, the fright and sickness that humans and their behavior cause the challenging, the dramatization of the big bang. It is a sorry little worm's view of the off-beat of adult pressure, of contemporary strictures and conformity, of sentiment….
A strict report, worthy of sympathy.Pub Date: June 15, 1951
ISBN: 0316769177
Page Count: -
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1951
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
APPRECIATIONS
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