Sanders's latest Texas novel (Texas Noon, Fort Worth, etc.) is, for want of anything more fitting, a good old-fashioned read. The heroes may be a bit too sturdy and the damsels plucky in the extreme, but this tale of the early days of the Texas Republic and the Logan family's dreams and ambitions is perfect for whiling away an evening or two. Tad Logan, a hero of the Texas Revolution, comes to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1839 in order to demand his inheritance from his father. He finds more than he sought, however, eventually returning to Texas with a new bride, Corrie McNair (whom he woos away from her fiancÇ), his younger brother, and her younger sister. Against all advice, the four settle in San Antonio, a beautiful site threatened by both Mexicans and Indians. As Tad becomes deeply involved in politics as part of his effort to create the independent nation of his dreams and to deal with the increasingly thorny debate over whether the Republic should willingly annex itself to the US, he begins to pay less and less attention to his family. Corrie's jilted suitor, Ramsey Cothburn, comes to Texas himself, creating several emotional crises over the years. Younger brother Whit eventually chooses a career with the Texas Rangers, fighting on the Mexican border (both brothers will spend time in Mexican prisons). Younger sister Prue grows into a beautiful woman with conflicting romantic desires, resulting in some rather melodramatic goings-on in the latter stages of the novel. The story continues through the annexation of Texas in 1845 and to the Civil War, in which Whit's and Tad's sons, Jim and Albert, fight for the Confederacy. A fairy tale of the American West, but most certainly not one in which everyone lives happily ever after.
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 1992
ISBN: 0-385-29916-8
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Delacorte
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1992
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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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