Blair (The Side of the Angels, 1992, etc.) portrays three very different kinds of women in this stock historical romance featuring some better-than-average character depictions. The women are the clear focus of this transcontinental, early- 20th-century tearjerker in which a trio of women who have little more in common than sharp intellects fall desperately in love with one questionably worthy man. Miranda Cunningham, a New York society wife whose husband Paul is a self-absorbed archeologist, is glad to take her niece Cynthia along on her trip to London to meet up with Paul after a long separation. Cynthia's father Hobart, the despised head of the Cunningham family, wants Miranda to find Cynthia a suitable—preferably titled—husband abroad, and although Miranda despises Hobart, she loves the quick-minded albeit dreadfully spoiled Cynthia. Aboard ship the two ladies meet Kitt McAllister, an independent single woman determined to see the world for herself and entirely unconcerned that she hasn't yet met the right man. Enter Steven James, a recently widowed, charismatic American destined for great things. Steven is instantly smitten with Miranda, who returns his admiration, but Cynthia and Kitt are formidable competition, and, after all, Miranda is already married. Passion and heartbreak ensue, in rapid succession, for all three women; secondary characters—like the stunningly handsome, secretly homosexual Lord Walford, the kindly but slightly dull Count d'Yveine, and the worldly-wise Lady Burdon—hover in the background observing Miranda, Cynthia, and Kitt as though the three were performing on stage. Eventually, all our heroines are thoroughly initiated into the true ways of love, with a conclusion that will surprise only the dimmest of readers. Pleasurable, nutrient-free fluff . . . but plenty of fun, and Blair stereotypes only her male characters in what is—though still a flaw—a rather satisfying twist.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1997
ISBN: 0-553-09310-X
Page Count: 496
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
The fine Israeli writer Yehoshua (Open Heart, 1996, etc.) makes a lengthy journey into the year 999, the end of the first millennium. Indeed, it is the idea of a great journey that is the heart of the story here. Ben Attar, a Moroccan Jewish merchant has come a long distance to France to seek out his nephew and former partner Abulafia. Ben Attar, the nephew, and a third partner, the Muslim Abu Lutfi, had once done a lucrative business importing spices and treasures from the Atlas Mountains to eager buyers in medieval Europe. But now their partnership has been threatened by a complex series of events, with Abulafia married to a pious Jewish widow who objects vehemently to Ben Attar’s two wives. Accompanied by a Spanish rabbi, whose cleverness is belied by his seeming ineffectualness; the rabbi’s young son, Abu Lutfi; the two wives; a timorous black slave boy, and a crew of Arab sailors, the merchant has come to Europe to fight for his former partnership. The battle takes place in two makeshift courtrooms in the isolated Jewish communities of the French countryside, in scenes depicted with extraordinary vividness. Yehoshua tells this complex, densely layered story of love, sexuality, betrayal and “the twilight days, [when] faiths [are] sharpened in the join between one millennium and the next” in a richly allusive, languorous prose, full of lengthy, packed sentences, with clauses tumbling one after another. De Lange’s translation is sensitively nuanced and elegant, catching the strangely hypnotic rhythms of Yehoshua’s style. As the story draws toward its tragic conclusion—but not the one you might expect—the effect is moving, subtle, at once both cerebral and emotional. One of Yehoshua’s most fully realized works: a masterpiece.
Pub Date: Jan. 19, 1999
ISBN: 0-385-48882-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1998
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters...
Female rivalry is again the main preoccupation of Hannah’s latest Pacific Northwest sob saga (Firefly Lane, 2008, etc.).
At Water’s Edge, the family seat overlooking Hood Canal, Vivi Ann, youngest and prettiest of the Grey sisters and a champion horsewoman, has persuaded embittered patriarch Henry to turn the tumbledown ranch into a Western-style equestrian arena. Eldest sister Winona, a respected lawyer in the nearby village of Oyster Shores, hires taciturn ranch hand Dallas Raintree, a half-Native American. Middle sister Aurora, stay-at-home mother of twins, languishes in a dull marriage. Winona, overweight since adolescence, envies Vivi, whose looks get her everything she wants, especially men. Indeed, Winona’s childhood crush Luke recently proposed to Vivi. Despite Aurora’s urging (her principal role is as sisterly referee), Winona won’t tell Vivi she loves Luke. Yearning for Dallas, Vivi stands up Luke to fall into bed with the enigmatic, tattooed cowboy. Winona snitches to Luke: engagement off. Vivi marries Dallas over Henry’s objections. The love-match triumphs, and Dallas, though scarred by child abuse, is an exemplary father to son Noah. One Christmas Eve, the town floozy is raped and murdered. An eyewitness and forensic evidence incriminate Dallas. Winona refuses to represent him, consigning him to the inept services of a public defender. After a guilty verdict, he’s sentenced to life without parole. A decade later, Winona has reached an uneasy truce with Vivi, who’s still pining for Dallas. Noah is a sullen teen, Aurora a brittle but resigned divorcée. Noah learns about the Seattle Innocence Project. Could modern DNA testing methods exonerate Dallas? Will Aunt Winona redeem herself by reopening the case? The outcome, while predictable, is achieved with more suspense and less sentimental histrionics than usual for Hannah.
Above-average formula fiction, making full display of the author’s strong suits: sense of place, compassion for characters and understanding of family dynamics.Pub Date: Feb. 9, 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-36410-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2008
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