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RANDOM WALK

Name: RANDOM WALK
Author: Lawrence Block
ISBN: 1583483810

by Lawrence Block ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 17, 1988

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In his foreword to this "Novel for a New Age," as the publisher touts it, mystery maven Block (the Matt Scudder and Evan Tanner series, etc.) thanks 15 spiritual teachers for their "valuable assistance." Too bad none of these gums had the smarts to tell Block to shelve this naive, preachy, and dull offering about a ragtag band of pilgrims who achieve ersatz wisdom on their walk to nowhere. The first walker is Oregon bartender Guthrie Wagner, who one day hears a voice in his head say, "You could take a walk." Take a walk Guthrie does, quitting his job and stepping east. Right away, small miracles occur: he sleeps in near-freezing air and feels no chill; he gives up smoking without trying. Meanwhile, two others soon to cross paths with Guthrie go about their business: 30-ish Indiana mom Sara Duskin, losing her sight but gaining insight and vision; and serial killer Mark Adlon, a woman-hating, millionaire real-estate investor whose stalking and slaying of a slew of victims provides the only real suspense here. As Mark goes on a cross-country killing spree, Sara ups stakes and, young son in tow, follows her heart to Guthrie, who's now strolling along with a buddy he's picked up along the way. The quartet ambles on, joined by dozens, then scores of others who feel the irresistible pull to walk; miracle cures of cancer and paralysis balloon among the walkers as Sara, now the band's acknowledged gum, goes into a trance and reveals their purpose: "to cure the planet's cancer. . .when enough people are walking, the planetary consciousness will reach critical mass, and then everybody will just plain get it without walking." Even serial killers, it seems: when Mark finally feels the call and finds the walkers, they forgive him his murders—after all, as Sara tells him, "Is it your fault they're dead? No. Every death is a kind of suicide; the one who dies chooses it." Fair warning: Run, don't walk, away from this dull psychospiritual babble.

Pub Date: Oct. 17, 1988

ISBN: 1583483810

Page Count: 300

Publisher: Tor

Review Posted Online: March 20, 2012

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 1988

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
INTO THE NIGHT
by Cornell Woolrich & Lawrence Block

- BOOK REVIEW
THE BURGLAR IN SHORT ORDER
by Lawrence Block

- BOOK REVIEW
IN SUNLIGHT OR IN SHADOW
edited by Lawrence Block

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BETWEEN SISTERS

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 2003

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...

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Sisters in and out of love.

Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?

Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.

Pub Date: May 1, 2003

ISBN: 0-345-45073-6

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Ballantine

Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003

Categories:

GENERAL FICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE WOMEN
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE FOUR WINDS
by Kristin Hannah

- BOOK REVIEW
THE GREAT ALONE
by Kristin Hannah

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THE ALCHEMIST

by Paulo Coelho & translated by Margaret Jull Costa ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 1, 1993

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.

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Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.

The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.

Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.