Overdone, but a very nice try, and well worth reading.
An abused young woman rises from whoredom to respectability in Canadian YA author Holeman’s first adult novel: a lively, quite readable Victorian pastiche.
Hopefully named for the eponymous songbird by her mother, a disgraced lady’s maid who had borne her out of wedlock, Linnet Gow labors with that mother (Frances) at a bookbinder’s—until the latter’s death leaves “Linny” in the Liverpool slums and the clutches of her drunken stepfather “Ram” Munt, who employs her as a child prostitute. Linny’s fantasies of comfort and learning (she’s a passionate reader) are subjugated to the sweaty embraces of malodorous seamen and sinister “uncles.” Surviving near death, then fleeing Ram, she becomes a street whore for Dickensian procuress Blue, before being rescued by Geoffrey “Shaker” Smallpiece, a compassionate anatomy student (whose hands, alas, tremble uncontrollably). While posing as a bereaved Smallpiece cousin, Linny is befriended by an importunate acquaintance and travels to Calcutta, where unmarried Englishwomen comprise a “fishing fleet” trolling for suitable men. Linny meets suave Somers Ingram, stumbles upon his Terrible Secret and—on being assured that he has guessed hers—agrees to a marriage of mutual convenience. Linny next involves herself in the case of a Hindu Pathan falsely accused of raping a white woman (shades of Forster’s A Passage to India), rediscovers her suppressed sexuality when abducted into a Lawrencian romantic adventure in the hill country and finally becomes the real woman she hasn’t been since her preadolescence. The story is considerably less absurd than summary makes it sound, largely because Holeman creates vividly realistic characters, writes crisp dialogue and delineates her several period milieus in memorably full detail. Furthermore, she refuses to sentimentalize Linny, or reward her with a conventional happy ending (the ironic fate reserved for her has considerable power).
Overdone, but a very nice try, and well worth reading.Pub Date: June 1, 2005
ISBN: 1-4000-9739-8
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2005
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Spielman’s debut charms as Brett briskly careens from catastrophe to disaster to enlightenment.
Devastated by her mother’s death, Brett Bohlinger consumes a bottle of outrageously expensive Champagne and trips down the stairs at the funeral luncheon. Add embarrassed to devastated. Could things get any worse? Of course they can, and they do—at the reading of the will.
Instead of inheriting the position of CEO at the family’s cosmetics firm—a position she has been groomed for—she’s given a life list she wrote when she was 14 and an ultimatum: Complete the goals, or lose her inheritance. Luckily, her mother, Elizabeth, has crossed off some of the more whimsical goals, including running with the bulls—too risky! Having a child, buying a horse, building a relationship with her (dead) father, however, all remain. Brad, the handsome attorney charged with making sure Brett achieves her goals, doles out a letter from her mother with each success. Warmly comforting, Elizabeth’s letters uncannily—and quite humorously—predict Brett’s side of the conversations. Brett grudgingly begins by performing at a local comedy club, an experience that proves both humiliating and instructive: Perfection is overrated, and taking risks is exhilarating. Becoming an awesome teacher, however, seems impossible given her utter lack of classroom management skills. Teaching homebound children offers surprising rewards, though. Along Brett’s journey, many of the friends (and family) she thought would support her instead betray her. Luckily, Brett’s new life is populated with quirky, sharply drawn characters, including a pregnant high school student living in a homeless shelter, a psychiatrist with plenty of time to chat about troubled children, and one of her mother’s dearest, most secret companions. A 10-step program for the grief-stricken, Brett’s quest brings her back to love, the best inheritance of all.
Spielman’s debut charms as Brett briskly careens from catastrophe to disaster to enlightenment.Pub Date: July 30, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-345-54087-4
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Bantam
Review Posted Online: June 8, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A mother and her child-prodigy daughter struggle to survive the Holocaust by telling stories and remembering the power of...
Rosner’s debut novel is a World War II story with a Room-like twist, one that also deftly examines the ways in which art and imagination can sustain us.
Five-year-old Shira is a prodigy. She hears entire musical passages in her head, which “take shape and pulse through her, quiet at first, then building in intensity and growing louder.” But making sounds is something Shira is not permitted to do. She and her mother, Róża, are Jews who are hiding in a barn in German-occupied Poland. Soldiers have shot Róża’s husband and dragged her parents away, and after a narrow escape, mother and daughter cower in a hayloft day and night, relying on the farmer and his wife to keep them safe from neighbors and passing patrols. The wife sneaks Shira outside for fresh air; the husband visits Róża late at night in the hayloft to exact his price. To keep Shira occupied and quiet the rest of the time, Róża spins tales of a little girl and a yellow bird in an enchanted but silent garden menaced by giants; only the bird is allowed to sing. But when Róża is offered a chance to hide Shira in an orphanage, she must weigh her daughter’s safety against her desire to keep the girl close. Rosner builds the tension as the novel progresses, wisely moving the action out of the barn before the premise grows tired or repetitive. This is a Holocaust novel, but it’s also an effective work of suspense, and Rosner’s understanding of how art plays a role in our lives, even at the worst of times, is impressive.
A mother and her child-prodigy daughter struggle to survive the Holocaust by telling stories and remembering the power of music.Pub Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-250-17977-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Review Posted Online: Jan. 12, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
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