In a seventh novel—as exquisitely styled as her previous efforts (Joanna, 1991, etc.)—Umbria-based St. Aubin de Ter†n uses her knowledge of rural Italy to evoke poignant images of tradition and a world in transition, where the love of a mangled war veteran for a fickle, long-lost fiancÇe burns brightly if secretly through the years. For the inhabitants of the ancient village where Alessandro Mezzanotte was born, the boundaries of the familiar ended at the edge of town, and anyone like him—who looked beyond for love and wife—was courting disaster. His infatuation with Valentina, gypsy daughter of a traveling circus owner, prompted frequent train trips just to spend a few hours with her, until he was drafted into Mussolini's army. An accident left him one-armed, horribly scarred, and blind, but he never lost hope that Valentina might return, even after she ran from him upon first seeing his condition in the hospital. Back in his village Mezzanotte kept to himself for 40 years, roaming the streets endlessly but befriending no one. Having outlived his entire family, he relies on the draftees sent by the state to be his companions; when Stefano, a troubled soldier whose mother escaped his father's tyranny by sleeping herself to death, comes to take his turn, his arrival coincides with the reappearance of the circus for the first time since the war. Mezzanotte abruptly halts his self-imposed isolation, telling Stefano about his life, and in response his listener discovers his own reason to live, so that when the old man dies the young man can carry on. A vivid, at times stunning depiction of Umbrian village life past and present—and a first-rate portrayal of the heart's yearning and the vitality of love.
Pub Date: Sept. 9, 1993
ISBN: 0-312-09888-X
Page Count: 224
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1993
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
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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