A deftly written, if less-than-groundbreaking, second novel from Cary (The Price of a Child, 1995; a memoir, Black Ice, 1991) likely to appeal to Terry McMillan fans everywhere. Four complicated African-American women, all on the verge of 40, weave in and out of each others' lives in ways both sustaining and disastrous. The opening scene, where the primary players are introduced, is staged at a wedding from hell. Audrey's birth-son Bryant, who was effectively raised by his mother's well-to-do friend Roz, is marrying a girl whom neither woman approves of: a pregnant 18-year-old whose sole career ambition is to open a manicure shop someday. Roz and Audrey's friend Tamarawho's catered the wedding feastis a college prof by trade and a gourmet cook by passion; and the final member of the foursome, Arneatha, is the Episcopal priest conducting the marriage ceremony. Slowly, underlying fault lines are revealed in all these women's lives: Roz is recovering from breast cancer, and the stress is interfering with her notorious ability to manage her family and help her politician husband, Hiram, who's now campaigning for a seat in Congress. Audrey's alcoholism has caused her years of anguish and misery, as well as the loss of her son; her journey back to sobriety is an arduous one, testing her friendships with the others. The very successful Tamara longs for more exciting workand a man who can accept her fiery spirit. And Arneatha, though seemingly the most stable of the group, has been concealing a years-long aching loneliness. By the somewhat-schmaltzy wrap-up, all's wellof course. An adequately entertaining if convoluted story, with swift and lively dialogue throughout. (Literary Guild selection)
Pub Date: Feb. 16, 1998
ISBN: 0-385-48131-4
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nan A. Talese
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1998
A first novel, this is also a first person account of Scout's (Jean Louise) recall of the years that led to the ending of a mystery, the breaking of her brother Jem's elbow, the death of her father's enemy — and the close of childhood years. A widower, Atticus raises his children with legal dispassion and paternal intelligence, and is ably abetted by Calpurnia, the colored cook, while the Alabama town of Maycomb, in the 1930's, remains aloof to their divergence from its tribal patterns. Scout and Jem, with their summer-time companion, Dill, find their paths free from interference — but not from dangers; their curiosity about the imprisoned Boo, whose miserable past is incorporated in their play, results in a tentative friendliness; their fears of Atticus' lack of distinction is dissipated when he shoots a mad dog; his defense of a Negro accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell, is followed with avid interest and turns the rabble whites against him. Scout is the means of averting an attack on Atticus but when he loses the case it is Boo who saves Jem and Scout by killing Mayella's father when he attempts to murder them. The shadows of a beginning for black-white understanding, the persistent fight that Scout carries on against school, Jem's emergence into adulthood, Calpurnia's quiet power, and all the incidents touching on the children's "growing outward" have an attractive starchiness that keeps this southern picture pert and provocative. There is much advance interest in this book; it has been selected by the Literary Guild and Reader's Digest; it should win many friends.
Pub Date: July 11, 1960
ISBN: 0060935464
Page Count: 323
Publisher: Lippincott
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1960
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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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