into the territory of romantic love.
A first novel, set in African-American and Latino communities, that offers some heartfelt insights gleaned from the bumpy
road of courtship. Though nearly 30, Myles Moore has convinced himself that he’s perfectly content with his single status—as a grade-school teacher, he’s busy and surrounded by a close circle of friends, and he’s willing to forgo dating while he waits for the right woman. And in she walks at a mutual friend’s house party (the meeting is a set-up, but the skittish Myles doesn’t know it until much later); literally bumping into Myles is the beautiful, feisty Marisa Marrero. Marisa is relocating from her lucrative career as an attorney in Washington, D.C., to begin a radio talk show in Philadelphia, and Myles is more than happy to help her get settled in—going as far as to suggest she take the vacant apartment across the hall from his, allowing for an almost live-in relationship from the start. Myles, gentle and caring, is a far cry from the usual self-involved high-rollers Marisa is accustomed to, while, for him, Marisa is perfection. The problems and triumphs the two encounter are small—less the stuff of fiction than the stuff of real life. Myles is overly emotional, Marisa coldly intellectual, refusing to share anything with him, including the heartache of her childhood as a Cuban refugee. Will she learn to trust Myles—and herself? Can Myles learn patience and restraint? It’s little surprise that true love wins, the peaks and valleys of the relationship here being only slightly more significant to the novel than the witty contours of Myles" life: talkin" trash on the basketball court, raucous romantic advice being doled out by his older brother, Myles valuing the tender relationship he has with his two nieces. Major, with a gift for dialogue, creates an amiable work—though small in scale, it serves as a companionable distraction
into the territory of romantic love.Pub Date: March 6, 2000
ISBN: 0-525-94535-0
Page Count: 272
Publisher: Dutton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
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
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
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