by Leland Jamieson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 12, 2009
Challenging poetry that’s well worth the effort.
An exceedingly unique compendium of brief, formal poems by a talented poet.
A fair number of Jamieson’s “new short rhyming poems,” many of which are strangely compelling, engage the cosmological speculation of Zecharia Sitchin. In a book called The Twelfth Planet, Sitchin pioneered the view that humanity began with a race of ancient astronauts visiting Earth from a planet from Nibiru. Sitchin is just one of the eccentric thinkers that Jamieson engages in this sundry collection whose entries focus on a wide variety of topics, from romance to cairns (ancient piles of stones often used to commemorate the dead), from family relationships to the neocortex (a part of the mammalian brain). However, it is not the reader’s job to critique Jamieson’s sources or his mythologies–outlandish though they may seem–but his poetry. The latter is often very good indeed. At his best, Jamieson resembles a modern-day G.M. Hopkins, frequently using end-rhyme in the subtlest ways and letting the natural rhythm of language–and not the forced cadence of poor verse–move readers smoothly from line to line. This is evidenced in the beautifully complex sonnet “Calling me home”–“In fragrant morning air, I spot bold hart / outside my window locking splendid racks. / Vermillion hills hoist sun behind their backs / cajoling sky’s zodiacal light, ‘Depart.’ ” Elsewhere, he’s too clever by half, as in “Persimmons, Pseudopods and Such” when he matches “odd” with the unforgivable “faux pased.” But overall, In Vitro features more delight than pretense. With this new collection of short poetry, Jamieson gives readers a veritable Gordian knot of words–it’s their pleasure to attempt unraveling it, even if they should fail.
Challenging poetry that’s well worth the effort.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2009
ISBN: 978-1441471215
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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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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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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