Essential for the development and reassessment of language-arts curricula in California schools.
A broad debut survey of a century’s worth of Golden State writing.
These short, manageable chapters examine specific eras or identities of California-centric fiction via well-selected quotations and brief discussions of various themes. From there, students can pursue original source material on their own. Significantly, Breiger, a longtime high school English teacher, addresses not just ethnic and gender diversity, but also class considerations and, to a lesser extent, sexuality. Of particular note are occasional moments when the author inserts personal asides into his analysis, as when he identifies with Charles Bukowski’s portrayal of postal workers based on his own experiences as an employee at the USPS main office in Oakland. Regarding Of Mice and Men, he writes: “Why do I honor John Steinbeck’s memory? Because I know he would have felt for my sister, understood her struggle with a seizure disorder, identified with her bravery and pain.” Similarly, Breiger isn’t afraid to share opinions that may be unpopular in certain circles—criticizing, for example, Huey Newton or defending Richard Rodriguez. This work nicely embodies the tension between recognizing literature’s so-called universal themes and erasing differences. Indeed, Breiger argues, disagreements between writers—even those often grouped together—should be welcomed: “The argument between Frank Chin and Maxine Hong Kingston does not need to have a winner or loser. Literature is not about winning or losing but about the attempt to find our individual truth that is, yet, about more than ourselves.” Some of the references (Phil Donahue, Peter Jennings, Maury Povich) may seem outdated for younger readers, though probably not for teachers of a certain age. Still, it’s easy to envision this handy reference as the first stop for students researching independent or group projects. Breiger’s humanist approach to literary criticism and appreciation supports the notion that literature must be accessible to all students as they engage with ideas that, with varying degrees of success, represent them and their communities.
Essential for the development and reassessment of language-arts curricula in California schools.Pub Date: April 15, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-9913652-0-3
Page Count: 196
Publisher: Valley Memories Press
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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
Britisher Swift's sixth novel (Ever After, 1992 etc.) and fourth to appear here is a slow-to-start but then captivating tale of English working-class families in the four decades following WW II. When Jack Dodds dies suddenly of cancer after years of running a butcher shop in London, he leaves a strange request—namely, that his ashes be scattered off Margate pier into the sea. And who could better be suited to fulfill this wish than his three oldest drinking buddies—insurance man Ray, vegetable seller Lenny, and undertaker Vic, all of whom, like Jack himself, fought also as soldiers or sailors in the long-ago world war. Swift's narrative start, with its potential for the melodramatic, is developed instead with an economy, heart, and eye that release (through the characters' own voices, one after another) the story's humanity and depth instead of its schmaltz. The jokes may be weak and self- conscious when the three old friends meet at their local pub in the company of the urn holding Jack's ashes; but once the group gets on the road, in an expensive car driven by Jack's adoptive son, Vince, the story starts gradually to move forward, cohere, and deepen. The reader learns in time why it is that no wife comes along, why three marriages out of three broke apart, and why Vince always hated his stepfather Jack and still does—or so he thinks. There will be stories of innocent youth, suffering wives, early loves, lost daughters, secret affairs, and old antagonisms—including a fistfight over the dead on an English hilltop, and a strewing of Jack's ashes into roiling seawaves that will draw up feelings perhaps unexpectedly strong. Without affectation, Swift listens closely to the lives that are his subject and creates a songbook of voices part lyric, part epic, part working-class social realism—with, in all, the ring to it of the honest, human, and true.
Pub Date: April 5, 1996
ISBN: 0-679-41224-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 1996
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