Richly detailed, first-rate tale of the religious, social, and political conflicts during the colonizing of Maryland (163849), based on the extraordinary real lives of real people. Robson's earlier boisterous historicals (paperback originals) dealt with 19th-century trials and tragedy among Native Americans; The Tokaido Road (1991 hardcover) was set in feudal Japan. This time, her story begins aboard a ship (``as ungainly as a gourd'') undertaking a hideous three-month voyage from Bristol, England, to the Maryland plantation of Lord Baltimore. Among those sailing, with varying degrees of fortitude: the upper-caste Catholic Brents; capable intelligent spinster Margaret, land-investing on her own; Margaret's fey, saintly sister, Mary; and two amiable, weak brothers. Down in the hold are the future indentured servants for the colony, including a kidnapped Bristol pickpocket, young Anicah, and another teenaged victim, Martin. At last the boatload of hopeless and hopefuls arrives in Mary's Landa half-wild, haphazardly planted settlement. On hand to greet the Brents are the worn, gentlemanly governor Calvert and his sheriff, irreverent Robert Vaughan, who will become Margaret's fast friend. Anicah can hardly believe her luck in being indentured to a tavern-keeper (food and drink to pinch and constant revelry!), but Martin fares ill and finally escapes to the local Indian tribe, one of whose members becomes a friend to the Brents. Troubles brew in the form of contentious Virginia settlers, fanatic Protestant enclaves, and in aftershocks from the simmering Cromwell rebellion in England. Meanwhile, Margaret oversees tobacco crops, the stabilizing of a household, and the keeping of a weather eye on the parliament (though as a woman, she's not allowed in). Throughout, these post- Elizabethans react with timeless bravery. Their punishments are cruel, their hierarchies absolute, but there's also song, poetry, bawdy humor, and their period's obsession with love and death. Memorable characters, scenes, and lilting dialogue: a stylish, superior historical. (Literary Guild alternate selection)
Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-345-37196-8
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 1995
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
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
© Copyright 2026 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.
