A measured, riveting tale, written in a confident, impassioned voice.
A Massachusetts teenager of mixed heritage leaves his family behind to search for his own identity in 1960s America in Cardillo’s (The Smallest Christmas Tree, 2015, etc.) historical-drama sequel.
The Monroes revel in their quiet life in Cape Poge on Chappaquiddick Island. But tragedy rears its ugly head in 1955 when polio attacks the family’s youngest child, 7-year-old Izzy. Mother Mae takes time away from her Boat House Café, which she’d established on her own in the series’ first book, to care for her ailing daughter. Son Josiah, meanwhile, struggles to connect to his Wampanoag roots. Despite the fact that his father, Tobias, is the tribe’s sachem (chief), some tribespeople feel that Jo that doesn’t belong because his mother is Irish. Meanwhile, Mae’s engaging, selfless friend, Betty, acts as a surrogate mother for the confused, adolescent Jo. (One can only hope that she will lead a spinoff book series.) Izzy survives polio with a paralyzed left leg, necessitating braces and crutches; later, Hurricane Donna damages the café so extensively that the family may not be able to afford repairs. Selling Mae’s land, Innisfree, however, could mean that the family would be able to pay for experimental corrective surgery for Izzy, which could allow her to walk unaided. Jo feels that losing Innisfree would be like losing another part of himself. He absconds to Boston and eventually tracks down Patrick, one of Mae’s estranged siblings. It turns out that mother and son are more alike than they’re willing to admit. This unhurried novel tackles crucial issues with panache. The theme of finding one’s identity, for example, also applies to Izzy, who doesn’t want to be defined by her disease. The novel also presents racism with subtlety, as when people guess where Jo’s from based solely on the color of his skin. Over the course of the story, Cardillo skillfully weaves in events from real-life history, as when Jo later serves as a combat medic in Vietnam. The novel only falters when it shifts its perspective to Tobias, whose relatively harmless act earns him unjust ire from Mae and Izzy; this thread lacks the dramatic punch of the rest of the narrative.
A measured, riveting tale, written in a confident, impassioned voice.Pub Date: April 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-942209-23-2
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Bellastoria Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
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
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
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.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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