A fast-paced and fun throwback to the heyday of the radio era.
In Wainland’s (Iron Butterfly, 2015) nostalgic thriller set in 1998, two radio disc jockeys find success in their professional lives, but their personal lives are a different story.
At Miami radio station WORR (“Only Rock and Roll”), DJ Jonny Rock (Jonathan Roeker, off-air) has been cheating on his wife for years—lately, with a cute, redheaded intern whose ambition he exploits for personal gain. Dana Drew (Dana Hill, off-air), one of a handful of female DJs in a male-dominated industry, is respected for her talent, but she’s also used as eye candy for promotional events, which she hates. Meanwhile, Larry Carter, Dana’s creepy superfan, has been losing weight, hoping to impress the radio host when he finally meets her in person. After surviving a traumatic childhood, Cody Blue Smith is finally getting his big break as a musician, but his newfound success strains his relationship with his band mates and his girlfriend. The radio station brings all these characters together and then tears them apart. The overarching story captures the zeitgeist of the late 1990s, as the DJs, rock stars, and listeners reveal the glamorous, complicated, and dangerous sides of the music industry in alternating narratives. Wainland’s characters are flawed, funny, and self-aware, brought to life with sharp prose: “he was sporting the hair style an angry child with a yellow crayon would give a stick figure.” The historical details also ring true: the tastemakers of the late ’90s were still people, not algorithms. The best DJs had loyal fans, and even the rude and raunchy ones had hate-listeners. The on-air banter on WORR is as cringe-worthy and familiar as the alternative rock bands on the playlist. Although it’s no surprise when Dana and Jonny receive unwanted attention, it’s exciting to watch what happens when newer technology, such as caller ID and search engines, is used against them.
A fast-paced and fun throwback to the heyday of the radio era.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-9978588-1-5
Page Count: 417
Publisher: Twin Tree Press
Review Posted Online: May 22, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
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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