Very familiar fare—in a second from the British author of Hoping for Hope (2001).
Squabbling family copes with death and disillusionment.
Informed by their aged but sprightly mother Clattie that their father has been felled by a heart attack, Jack Palmer’s grown children begin to whine—in a quiet, tight-lipped, veddy British sort of way. The complaining never lets up even after Clattie reveals a shocking family skeleton: early in their marriage, a woman Jack loved before he met Clattie gave birth to his child, whom he acknowledged and supported while keeping the secret from his subsequent children. Ralph, arrogant eldest of the legitimate Palmers, is aghast to find that he has a half-brother who had the temerity to precede him in the all-important birth order. Hugh, now a successful chef but definitely in touch with his inner middle child, is still struggling with issues of self-worth. He remembers only too well eying the dish of roast potatoes as a young boy, desperately willing there to be enough for him to have a second helping: What if this surprising new brother competes with him for the emotional potatoes? Will Pippa, their born-again younger sister, greet the prodigal with open arms and Christian love, or will she too raise hitherto unexplored issues of trust? Titus is nonplussed by all the ado, though a bit sad for his old dad. He’s a practical sort, an upholsterer and furniture restorer with a down-to-earth Australian wife and a punky teenaged daughter named Summer. “What sort of name is that?” Ralph spits. “They’re all so . . . so unlike us.” But mere aversion to antipodean accents can’t stop these mismatched siblings from opening a restaurant together and fulfilling Hugh’s lifelong dream (see above: enough potatoes). Titus designs the décor, sundry spouses and kids help out, and Clattie comes into her own at last. Everyone comes to terms with everything sooner or later, and please pass the salt, etc.
Very familiar fare—in a second from the British author of Hoping for Hope (2001).Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-525-94710-8
Page Count: 306
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
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
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