by Lauren Fox ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 2007
Lots of admirable writing about a banally self-centered character.
A debut novel about a young woman who must decide whether to settle for her husband’s suburban dreams.
Emily Ross loves Kevin, her husband of nine years. But she doesn’t want to leave their funky downtown Milwaukee apartment that’s in walking distance of all their friends and favorite restaurants in favor of a suburban home just because mortgage rates are rising, which Kevin portentously points out, often. His other drumbeat has to do with having a baby: You’re not getting any younger, he tells her, often. To 30-year-old Emily, that’s not a persuasive argument. The fact is, she’s not sure about having a baby, but she doesn’t quite understand why. To complicate matters, lately children have been reminding her of tiny Zsa Zsa Gabors, chauffeured around in their tricked-out strollers, imperious and demanding. Normally, Emily would share her fears with her best friend, Meg. But Meg is eight weeks pregnant and positively glowing. Besides, Meg wants Emily to have a baby, too. Into Emily’s perplexity arrives David, a dreamy, dark-haired editor who works for a local paper. He wants her to write a column for him—and possibly something more. Emily walks the knife’s edge as innocent emails between them evolve into strolls in the park and other “non-date” outings. Initially, she forgets to mention she is married, and there never seems a right time to bring it up. When she finally fesses up, their passions usurp the Midwestern morality both thought they possessed. Fox ably evokes the suffocation of a well-meaning but empty marriage and Emily’s guilt-ridden but sexually charged affair. In her misery, Emily makes periodic observations that bring Lorrie Moore’s wit to mind. But while she mentally whips herself for betraying the loveable drudge Kevin, she’s drinking lattes with her fun friend Meg and steaming up the sheets with dashing David.
Lots of admirable writing about a banally self-centered character.Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2007
ISBN: 0-307-26491-2
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2006
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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
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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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