Wholly believable, confidently realized, attention-holding historical fiction.
Petticoat espionage in a decidedly stinky, dangerous Old New York.
Few novelists working now have a better grasp of early American history than Robson (Fearless, 1998, etc.), who, among her other virtues, understands that not every colonist talked like a pirate and shuns outré and anachronistic dialect. In this spirited—and quite entertaining—confection, she turns her attention to a Quaker clan in a New York whose administration isn’t quite working at the dawn of the Revolution, with all the mounds of uncollected garbage that entails. The likes of General Howe and suave spy Major Andre wish very much to see royal governance restored, and Rob Townsend hasn’t been doing much to stop them; he “had watched the Continental Army straggle into the city four months ago, but this was not his fight. He was a Quaker, and he swore loyalty to no one but God.” Hearing the Declaration of Independence proclaimed changes Rob’s mind, and fellow Quaker Seth Darby and his 17-year-old sister Kate likewise opt for the rebel cause, all prepared to give their lives just as good Nathan Hale is about to do. Rob has a thing for Kate (“He clasped his hands behind his back so she would not see him trembling”). So does Major Andre, and Kate has, well, reciprocal views: “He did have the most beautiful teeth and eyes. Kate felt the usual flutter in her chest whenever he was near.” Even Benedict Arnold, Andre’s onetime bête noire and ally-to-be, notices Kate, and he’s got his hands full with the tenacious Peggy Shippen, a figure nicely drafted out of real history to do duty here. Chests heave, flintlocks discharge, and history takes its ever unpredictable twists and turns as spy meets spy, George Washington tells fibs that would make Parson Weems wince, Alex Hamilton takes offense at everyone and everything and the Revolution suffers its darkest hours.
Wholly believable, confidently realized, attention-holding historical fiction.Pub Date: May 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-765-30550-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2005
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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