This illuminating narrative takes a riotous route to educating readers in economics.
A novel tells the tale of an immortal muse behind economics.
Blanco (El Economista Desconocido, 2012) presents the fantastical story of the 10th Muse: an immortal woman with bat wings, a dragon’s tail, and a deep understanding of the social science of economics. Much like the other Muses of ancient Greek mythology, the Muse of Economics is a daughter born of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Unfortunately for the Economics Muse, Aphrodite, the infamous goddess of love and beauty, dislikes her intensely. As Aphrodite puts it, “You practice a dismal, pessimistic science that brings only darkness and drudgery, not inspiration, to the mortals.” After a stint in the underworld, the Economics Muse begins appearing to mortals throughout history. The narrative follows her as she attempts to get the humans of the past to understand the importance of concepts their descendants would come to take for granted, such as the division of labor and the costs of opportunity. Taking into account humanity’s bloody and ignorance-filled history, the story chronicles the Economics Muse’s uphill battle. Add in her struggles with the vampiric creatures created by Aphrodite and known as Venusians, and the result is a tale that is bizarre, brutal, and edifying. Imagine Buffy the Vampire Slayer with a penchant for economic laws rampaging through a European history textbook. In other words, if, based on the title, readers are expecting a cute way to learn about economic principles, they have come to the wrong place. The story is full of slaughter both historical (a massacre in Flanders in 1302) and otherworldly (the presence of Venusians at that tragedy), and the Economics Muse is hardly a passive bystander. But her violence, along with her sassy attitude (“Your peasants almost pulled it off,” she remarks to the severed head of John Ball), can distract from the main objective, which, it seems, is to make economics more palatable. Nevertheless, in this endeavor, the work succeeds. If readers learn nothing else, the book makes it clear that economic principles have evolved over the ages. The tale shows, for instance, that collecting interest on loans, a practice that was once banned as usury, is now—with or without the help of a butt-kicking immortal—commonplace.
This illuminating narrative takes a riotous route to educating readers in economics.Pub Date: Aug. 30, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-973745-85-3
Page Count: 260
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Dec. 13, 2017
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
