An uneven tale of the occult.
In this debut novel, modern life clashes with African magic as a young British woman finds herself the target of her stepmother’s jealousy and animosity.
The opening lines of Kenani’s book set the stage for this strange tale: “Real zombies have no memory of taste, emotion or warmth. My name is Anne Hoboka. I was a zombie.” Anne is the protagonist and narrator, and this is the story of how she became, temporarily at least, a zombie. Her trouble begins when she accepts a warm invitation from her stepmother, Tamara, who lives in Johannesburg, to spend winter break with the family on a trip to Rio de Janeiro. The group includes Anne’s father, her two stepsiblings, and Tamara. Anne agrees to leave the cold of London, where she is a third-year university student, to spend some time in the sun. But the family vibes in Rio are unsettling. Her father spends most of the vacation reading while Tamara begins lacing into Anne for no discernible reason: “You always have to be the centre of attention, you always have to be in control, and you always fight!” Anne returns to London and begins to slip increasingly into a serious depression. Always a high achiever, she now starts missing classes; she stops eating; she loses her boyfriend, Fritz. This ambitious tale offers a captivating premise and the tantalizing seeds of an engrossing mystery with an intriguing heroine—an inside look at the gradual breakdown of a psyche. Unfortunately, Kenani doesn’t build a framework through which to understand Anne or the relationships between family members, who are scattered from South Africa to Sweden. There are no referential backstories. It is difficult to comprehend why Tamara’s treatment of Anne results in such a total deterioration of her mental state. And Fritz’s repeatedly bland reactions to Tamara’s cruel phone rants—at one point, he says that maybe “she’s trying to help you”—are additionally puzzling. Anne has become paranoid. But is she delusional, or has she been placed under a curse? This question provides strong narrative potential. But the prose, overloaded with mundane, day-to-day details, lacks enough energy to create a compelling drama.
An uneven tale of the occult.Pub Date: Oct. 20, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-5333-5264-4
Page Count: 212
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2018
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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