A gripping paranormal thriller bolstered by a complex heroine and her rich spiritual heritage.
In Pi’s debut thriller, a woman’s career and family are threatened by supernatural forces from her ancestors’ past.
Biologist Nalini Menon, a native of Kerala, India, has a prosperous life in America, including a beautiful home in New York City and a career in the biotechnology industry. She and her husband, Joe, a computer engineer, have two daughters, Anna and Asha. Despite being raised in a devout Hindu family, Nalini had abandoned her family’s religion—until a strange series of events prompts her to return to her native country for a spiritual awakening. It begins when Asha contracts a sudden illness, and Nalini’s maid, Kalyani, immediately recognizes the ailment’s supernatural aspect and begins to pray. Nalini remembers the prayers of her childhood and begins saying them herself. Asha recovers, but it turns out that Nalini’s problems are just beginning, as she’s abruptly laid off from her job. The family returns to Kerala, hoping that a break will help them figure out their next move. After a brief, volatile affair with a neighbor, Nalini separates from Joe, until a near-fatal car accident reunites them. She soon discovers that a malevolent force is behind the various mishaps and that the key to her survival may lie within her Hindu faith. Pi’s ambitious novel weaves Nalini’s story with those of a number of deities, including Kavilamma and Kunjumenon, her family’s guardian angels. Nalini is a complicated character who’s intelligent, sensuous, and deeply devoted to her children. Her journey takes many unexpected detours, and Pi chronicles her emotional and spiritual growth in a nuanced manner. However, the character development doesn’t stop with Nalini; Kalyani is shown to be a compassionate confidante and protector whose second chance at romance in Kerala produces some of the novel’s most poignant moments. The deities also successfully complement Nalini’s story, and their parallel narrative allows the author to elaborate on the protagonist’s religious heritage while also providing context for the events that place her life in danger. Although the novel is long, its skillful pacing keeps the story moving at a rapid pace.
A gripping paranormal thriller bolstered by a complex heroine and her rich spiritual heritage.Pub Date: Jan. 14, 2015
ISBN: 978-1500259006
Page Count: 460
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
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
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