Beautiful language and well-drawn characters get bogged down by a convoluted narrative.
A time-traveling tale that blends science, history and fantasy into a character study that questions the very nature of individual thought and our perception of time.
Mason’s tale picks up with Cecile, the time-traveling heroine from his first novel (The Botherhopping, 2010), stranded in Paris in 1911 and working among a comically philosophical kitchen staff. She is soon reunited with old friends including Edward, Oscar Wilde’s former butler, and Fred, an aboriginal from a bygone era struggling with his sexuality and identity. Together, they reconnect with the time-hopping Society, and meet with historical figures such as Marie Curie and Sir Isaac Newton, eventually uncovering a plot to assassinate Charles Darwin. Along the way Cecile questions the nature of time and how it is experienced—is it truly linear, or do we just perceive it that way? The drawback to these digressions is that a clear plot doesn’t take shape until late in the novel, and the work’s true strength is its supporting cast—Edward’s self-doubt, Fred’s inner turmoil and the eccentricities of Darwin, Curie, Newton and the garrulous kitchen staff are endearing. Other “familiar” faces turn up as well, but those unacquainted with Mason’s first book will find themselves lost as to who these characters are, with one such instance—the introduction of Cecile’s “handler,” the enigmatic Henry—offering a fitting metaphor for the novel itself: “The trick when talking to Henry was to hang in there and grab at clues.” The reader learns little of the characters’ back stories, and less about the mechanics (and reasons) of their travels through time, which will be a sticking point for many fans of the genre. The language Mason employs throughout has a lyrical quality, reading less like prose and more like long-form poetry, setting a seemingly contradictory but nonetheless effective tone mixing seriousness and whimsy.
Beautiful language and well-drawn characters get bogged down by a convoluted narrative.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-1453712269
Page Count: -
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2011
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
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