by Lorene Cary ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 16, 1998
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
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by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 1, 2006
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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by J.D. Salinger ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 15, 1951
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
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